Fragments
by Mariann's
Summary: Pieces of stories I work - Harry/Hermione predominantly. Some just too similar to post as individual stories, but I have a few chapters done and left it at some point. Would look forward to lots of inputs to maybe upgrade the stories!
1. Chapter 1

I have an easy time getting stories started and getting into them, but have an especially hard time to get them to a good end. This is my place for planting these stories and maybe the input I hope to get from reviews gets them to move on.

I have a few 'prejudices' in this area – I strongly dislike any relationships between the older and younger generations; I detest harem stories; I support mostly Harry/Hermione and happily ship Sirius and Remus. My other favourite characters are Susan and Amelia Bones, the Weasley twins, the professors at Hogwarts sans Snape (too laden with horrid traits for me to even consider a good person), Poppy Pomfrey, Mad-Eye, Arthur, Bill and Charlie Weasley.

The following is an excerpt of a story I've started. It is not the option Harry chooses in what I've already written – should I go on with this version as well?

Review and tell me!

\- Fragment No. 1-

"I can let you go back - and let you go back to any point in time before now. The only limit in your choice is the date of your conception. If you want to go back this far you can simply wait for a few days longer before you come to this world, which would seriously blast that prophecy. Your parents would still be in danger, because they were fierce enemies of Voldemort, but you would most probably not be under Dumbledore's thumb then. And you would not be the Boy-Who-Lived."

Harry's eyes lit up - a whole different world that would be!

"Would I remember?"

"That would make sending you there a bit more difficult - you'd have to be born with the full ability of thinking and talking, but at the same time you would still be a helpless baby! You could, however, help your parents a lot. On the other hand you'd spoil parenthood for your parents a bit."

"They could still enjoy that with any siblings I might get..."

"True."

"And I could tell them the Prophecy. I'm sure they'd think of letting Voldemort know the full contents quick enough – because had he known he'd most certainly not have touched any of us and kept living in fear of it to come true…"


	2. Chapter 2 - Iris Evans Inherits A Nephew

A/N - a handful of chapters of a story that I started and never really got a way to go on. Any inpunt whether I should keep working on it or even the odd idea would be most welcome. Starts off with an O/C...

 **Iris Evans Inherits a Nephew**

 **Chapter 1 – THAT Day!**

 **Bevendean, Brighton, August 12, 1985**

Iris Evans was a happy young witch, just out of Hogwarts, and entering a Muggle university in her home town of Brighton. She had inherited a nice little sum of money, which allowed her to buy a house at Bevendean, on the northern outskirts of Brighton. The house was situated on the edge of the town with lovely country views and if she looked up the hill, she was able to see her future alma mater from afar. It suited her well to have the three-bedroom house for herself instead of sharing dorms at some student accommodation, even if she had to take to the road to get to the uni. She looked forward to study Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Her house sat on the corner of a small housing estate and had a little garden. To help pay for the mortgage she had looked for and found a roommate, who would also start uni at the same time.

She woke up on her eighteenth birthday, greeted by a number of owls who all wanted to be the first to pass on the birthday wishes they carried. There was also a knock on her bedroom door from her roommate Cindy Powell, who seemed to be intent to shorten her night and lengthen her birthday, because a glance on her alarm clock told her it was only seven o'clock in the morning. With a groan, Iris lifted her 52 kilos from her bed and turned to the window, calling Cindy inside at the same time.

"Good morning, sunshine! Happiest... what on earth is that?" Cindy screamed, seeing all the owls on the window.

Iris grinned. She had known the day would come when her roommate would be onto her secret, even if it was a little quick. Cindy Powell was a Muggle, and had no idea that there still was something like magic all around her. She had moved in only two weeks before, but had quickly become friends with the bubbly young witch.

Iris herself was a foster child since she was 14 and her parents had died in 1981. She remembered almost nothing from that time. The trauma of her parents' deaths was so bad that she didn't recall anything before it anymore. In fact it had been a miracle that she hadn't forgotten that she was a witch! But strangely, she could remember everything she ever learned at school, the Muggle primary school she had visited as well as Hogwarts. She was in her fourth year there when one day an owl had reached her to inform her of her parents' death. It was a sad time, but soon the Ministry's child service had found her a good set of foster parents. Her foster father was a wizard from a long line of wizards, but her foster mother was a Muggle-born, just like Iris herself. Iris had a brilliant mind. Her foster parents supported her when she decided that she wanted to keep up with her Muggle middle school education and did it all at the same time she went through Hogwarts. The competent people and the Ministry's child service had given her the opportunity to sit through her NEWTS a little earlier, because some of her A-level exams would have taken place at the same time.

She had sailed through both examinations with flying colours and had immediately inscribed herself as a new student at Brighton University. With A-levels in astronomy and science, she was well prepared to study the subjects further and looked forward to it.

Reaching 17 had brought her the surprise of her inheritance from her parents. She had used the substantial amount of money to buy her house, a lovely modern brick house with a good kitchen, two nice reception rooms and three bedrooms with a bathroom on the top floor. The house was brand new and had all the mod cons of modern day living. She was delighted to find it even had a dishwasher! No wand waving would be necessary to do her dishes. A small mortgage helped her tax bills and she had a little money left to furnish the rooms.

She had found her roommate when she met her at the university, inscribing at the same time. They had immediately liked each other and Iris invited her to live at her house. It would be much nicer to have a roommate and besides, from her magical friends there would be no one attending Muggle university.

That was her only problem. Cindy knew nothing about magic and it was forbidden to tell her. Well, actually she knew of more than one of her friends who had to inform some Muggles for one reason or another. Being Muggle-born herself, she knew very well how to live amongst Muggles, so Iris had no problems with that at all. To get to the train station she would ride her bike. There was a small super-market not too far away from her house for all of her groceries and Brighton was just a short way away for all the extras.

On the morning of her birthday, there were so many owls it would take more than a few seconds to relieve them from their burden and Iris didn't want to worry Cindy too much by keeping her waiting in front of the room for too long. So she opened the window with a wave of her wand and called for Cindy to come in at the same time. While tending to the post owls, Iris didn't dare to look at her roommate for fear of laughing at the astonished face she expected to see. Iris had an owl of her own, which she had simply presented as her pet. She had fibbed a little, telling Cindy that she had found the owl when she was very small and brought her up. Not that her regal little barn owl Samantha had liked that story one bit, oh no! She was, after all, of the best barn owl breed possible! Iris had owned her since the day of her first visit to Diagon Alley, when her parents had given her as a present for receiving that Hogwarts letter.

"...what on earth is THAT?"

"Sorry, Cindy, I forgot that I would be inundated by them on my birthday... they're post owls."

"You're having me on, don't you?"

"No, I don't, sorry. You can see that they all carry letters! I'll have to explain my other world to you, even though I'm not actually allowed to do so, because I'm breaching an important statute, but it's impossible to live in the same house without you noticing sooner or later. So, I'll come clean right away. There now, that's you done, my dear. Go back and nip Steve in the ear so he doesn't forget to turn up tonight, okay? He'll do that in any case if you don't remind him..."

One by one, the owls flew away from her window. There were only three left now and one of them was unknown to her, but she still relieved the bird of its official looking letter. She stared at it and saw a Gringotts seal on the back. Shrugging, she picked it up with the other post and closed the window again.

"Phew! That was a bunch! I don't think I've ever had this many at one time... – Let me just get dressed and then I'll come down, okay?"

"I've actually made breakfast already; it is your birthday, so you're not going to touch any housework today!" Cindy said proudly.

"Thanks, honey, that's sweet of you! I'll reciprocate on your birthday!"

"Great! See you in a moment. And I want to know the truth of those owls and that statute you're breaking!"

During breakfast, eaten on the terrace right outside of the living room Iris told Cindy about her other background. She showed her a good number of photos and at the latest when she saw the people on those photos moving around the pictures she believed what her roommate said.

"Wow. Housework must mean nothing to you now!"

Iris threw her head back and laughed. She admitted that no, she wouldn't have to do much of that and now that Cindy knew about her she could just do it every night with a few waves of her wand. Cleaning up after parties should be a quick job.

"But, and that's the crux of the matter, you may not tell anyone, Cindy. I shouldn't even have taken you in, because that meant that you would find out. The Ministry doesn't control too strictly, and I know of several people who already had to tell the odd non-magical, but I wouldn't want anyone else to find out, because I wouldn't want to do to them what the Ministry people do when Muggles accidentally see magic. So, for every one of the people we might bring home from uni, or your friends, Sam will still only be my pet who I brought up from finding her as a small owlet that fell out of her nest."

"Of course. That's... you know that's bloody brilliant! Is that how you could afford the house? Can you make money?"

"Oh no! If that were the case, there wouldn't be any poor wizards or witches! But there are, quite a few of them have little money. Believe me, our world is not the best of all worlds either. So these are some of the birthday wishes from several of my friends from Hogwarts. Some of them will actually be at the party tonight."

"Ah yes, you said that you planned a party. I'll vacate the place and visit my parents then."

"You don't need to! I'm sure that you'll see these people around here on a good number of times, so there's no reason to avoid them. Most of them are good fun, too! One is even coming from Egypt, where he works as a curse breaker. He's just out of apprenticeship with the Gringotts Goblins and has left for Egypt in May."

"Oh, something juicy to tell me about that guy since you mention him specifically?"

Iris laughed. Everyone at school, and especially every Gryffindor girl, would have had a little crush on the good-looking Headboy of three years ago. Bill Weasley stood tall, slim, wore long hair and always had a charming smile on his lips. He was gentle, yet witty, of good, solid stock and came from a large family in Devon. The oldest of seven siblings, six of them boys, he had learned to carry responsibility from an early age and had brought that quality to Hogwarts. Yes, if she was honest with herself Iris also had nurtured a little crush on the young man. But being friends with him was enough, which was why they were still in regular contact with each other via letters. They met during Iris's stays at home from Hogwarts.

"Nothing juicy to tell you, except that he's an extremely handsome fellow in every aspect. Great company and the heart and soul of every party."

"Ah. Any one on these photos?"

"This one here... Bill Weasley."

Cindy studied the picture of the smiling young man who seemed to wave his hand at her on the photo. She nodded.

"I see what you mean. If he's as nice on the inside as he looks from the outside..."

"Believe me, this one is. An absolute gem. Lucky girl who gets him one day!"

Iris picked up her birthday cards and some gifts from friends who wouldn't be able to come to the party, and then, at last, the letter from Gringotts. She didn't have a vault herself and wondered. And as she read on, she started to cry, much to the consternation of her roommate.

"Iris! What happened? Did someone die or something?"

Iris nodded.

"Yes, but... there's something that has to do with my memory loss after my parents died! I've just told you that I don't even have any photos; I was told that it all burned down when our house was on fire and killed them. I actually inherited the money, which came mostly from the insurance on our old house. This is a letter from the wizarding bank, Gringotts..."

Iris handed the letter over to her friend, who read it, completely astonished:

"Dear Miss Evans,

We are pleased to invite you to our premises on this day, August 12, 1985, at 10.00 o'clock, to hear about certain parts of the will of your older sister, Mrs Lily Potter-Evans, deceased on October 31, 1981. As you will know, she was your guardian since the death of your parents due to an attack by Death Eaters on May 14, 1979, the day your oldest sister Petunia Dursley-Evans waived custody over you.

Mrs Potter's will stipulated that you will come into your inheritance not on the day of your maturity, but on your eighteenth birthday to ensure that you are of age in both, the Muggle and magical world. It was a safety measure to protect you from your oldest sister, in case of the premature death of your guardian.

You do not need to reply to this missive, but simply ask for Bloodaxe, who is the Potters' account manager. A new date would be set if you are not arriving at the bank on time.

Sincerely,

Griphook

Junior teller, Gringotts."

"I don't remember anything of all of that, Cindy. Not a thing! I have completely forgotten that I ever had sisters..."

She looked at the watch and noticed that she had still twenty minutes of time before she had to be there.

"Where is this bank?"

"London."

"Forget arriving there in twenty minutes, dear."

"Oh, I'll be there in seconds flat. I can apparate now, you know. I'll just vanish here and arrive there. I'm afraid I'll have to go. Can you do the shopping for me for tonight? Buy whatever you like and calculate for seven people. I have five friends coming over. Maybe calculate for a few more, two at least... who knows, I might be a while..."

"Yes, sure! I'll prepare everything; you go see what this is all about!"

Iris got up, ran to her room and returned, minutes later, dressed not in the sundress she had on before, but a proper set of light blue witches' robes. She put the hat on her head and grabbed her purse, then pulled the wand from it. Cindy stared.

"Oh dear, now there's some kind of a change... you look quite formidable, you know!"

"Thanks, Cindy. I'm off then. I'll give you a call as soon as I can and I will be back tonight!"

"Good luck then!"

"Thanks! Bye!"

Iris apparated to the outside of Gringotts. As she stepped into the bank, she looked around and smiled. She loved Diagon Alley. It held good memories of her many shopping trips for school materials or outings with friends from Hogwarts. She planned to get some ice cream to take home from Fortescue's as soon as she was done with the bank. She stepped into the shortest line she could see at the tellers' desks and waited for her turn. As she stepped up, she showed her letter and said:

"I was asked for a meeting with Bloodaxe at ten."

"That looks fine. Quickmix, can you take the lady to Bloodaxe?"

A young Goblin led her to a private office, where he knocked and they heard a voice that invited them to enter. They both did and Quickmix introduced her:

"Miss Evans, for your proposed meeting, sir."

"Thank you, you can leave us alone. Would you please take a seat, Miss Evans?"

Iris returned the greeting and looked around quickly. She wasn't alone in the office, there was also a young man of about twenty-five years, who looked a bit shabby, but spotlessly clean, from his worn robes to the tip of his wizard's hat. She thought she might have seen him before, but couldn't properly remember. Bloodaxe introduced him quickly:

"This is Mr. Remus Lupin, Miss Iris Evans."

Iris and Remus shook hands and exchanged polite greetings. Remus gazed at her, astounded by her likeness to Lily. But his whole behaviour showed that he had no recollection of her at all. Then Bloodaxe explained:

"I am very sorry for the short notice, but we had to act as stipulated by your older sister, Mrs Potter."

"You find me very confused, Mr. Bloodaxe," Iris said hesitantly, but she accepted the proffered seat.

"Only Bloodaxe will do, thank you. This does not astonish me. The reason for your sister's secrecy was that she suspected some foul play. I am sure you have heard and read about the day James and Lily Potter died and their baby son, Harry, survived the Killing Curse cast by the Dark Lord Voldemort?"

Iris shuddered, hearing the dreaded name. Like everyone else in the magical world, she didn't like to hear it spoken aloud. Though the young man in the other chair didn't show any reaction at all.

"Yes. The Boy-Who-Lived – who doesn't know his story?"

"Hardly anyone, I would think. For all we know there were no witnesses of what happened apart from the boy himself. And he would only be five years old now, as far as I know."

"But what does this have to do with me?"

"We are talking of Lily Potter now. She was your older sister as you know very well."

"I'm sorry – I wasn't aware that I had an older sister, your letter is the first time I'm hearing about that. And another, yet older sister even? I always thought my parents died in a house fire five years ago."

Remus looked as confused as Iris felt. He remembered that fire, but it was actually seven, not five years earlier.

"Ah – so that was what Mrs Potter was afraid of. Let me first read her will to you, Miss Evans, Mr. Lupin, and then we discuss the ramifications and finally we'll have some healers up here from Gringotts, together with our newest fully qualified curse breaker, to see whether there would be any memory charms holding you back."

"Who on earth would put a memory charm like that on me? Yes, go ahead, let me hear."

"We begin with a memory that Mrs Potter recorded here at Gringotts, on the day of her last visit to the bank, on October 27, 1981."

Remus' face was proof of his curiosity. It seemed that he was surprised to hear that Lily had left her hiding spot so shortly before she actually died. Bloodaxe set up a bowl, inscribed with runes on the inside. Iris hadn't ever seen anything like this bowl before. With a wave of his long-fingered hand, Bloodaxe set it to start what seemed to be like a recording to Iris. She could see a young woman's image rising from the bowl. The woman looked to be not much older than herself, and she had the same features: long, auburn hair, green eyes of the same kind as Iris herself, and a wonderful smile. Iris saw tears beginning to run down Remus' cheek.

"I'm sorry, Iris, if you see this then it means I'm gone. Can't bloomin' say dead, because that just simply hurts too much. We've just gone into hiding, but the moment that Peter sealed the spell by accepting to be our Secret Keeper, both James and I had a bad feeling about it. You know, in the past few days we've discussed the situation and discussed it over and over again. Sirius is completely out of it, he so wants to be our Secret Keeper, but we're all aware of what an obvious choice he'd be. The Death Eaters would be onto him in no time and he fears he wouldn't even have time enough to hide. Dumbledore has been a real pain in the butt; you wouldn't believe how much he's pestered us to go under this Fidelius charm. And topping all the pestering off he practically forced us to move to his home in Godric's Hollow. He thinks that would keep the Death Eaters and Voldemort away from our tracks. Using Peter would be so inconspicuous that we and he needn't be afraid of anything, Dumbledore said.

Still, James and I aren't really convinced, but we're playing along for the moment. There is an official will that James wrote, but this one here is now the will that replaces the earlier one. The date on this one is two days after Dumbledore had us write a will. He suggested doing that, just in case, because we leave behind the whole Potter estate, which is a massive inheritance. If none of us survives, you would be the sole heir. As James and I have become your guardians, you are the only one remaining. In our official will we have guardians stipulated for Harry, if he should live and we die. They are, in this order: Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, Alice and Frank Longbottom, and Honoria and Edgar Bones. We think the list is long enough that one of them should still be around to take up the mantle of Harry's guardian. As you know Sirius is Harry's godfather, and bound to the baby through the godparent's bond. We have completed it on the day of Harry's first birthday. Sirius would never harm the little one!

But we are convinced that there is some sort of foul play. Peter has badmouthed Remus for the past half year, to the point that even Sirius is confused and ready to believe that Remus might be the one who gives Order secrets away. He is so out of it, Iris. You know him, he's usually the person who can't be fazed by anything, but right now he's so confused and because he loves Remus, he doesn't want to believe. James and I have a very bad feeling; I believe I've already said so.

Because of that, I have snuck out today, to Gringotts and I'm recording this for you as an additional explanation, just to make sure that you know all of our ramifications. James and I have written another will, which I have witnessed here at Gringotts by Frank Longbottom and Edgar Bones. It differs slightly from the other will in that it makes you a ward of the Potter family and gives you a substantial amount of money to help you into your first steps after Hogwarts. We have already given you a nice amount through our other will, but this one here holds a few more details and stipulations. We couldn't do that in our original will, because it was the one that Dumbledore saw. We suspect that he will try to seize Harry and use him. The reason for that is that there is a prophecy made about Harry and Voldemort. Dumbledore believes in the rubbish, unfortunately, and if there should be an attack on us, which Harry survives, you can be dead sure he will regard Harry as some kind of a weapon and dress him up to be one. If Voldemort indeed attacks us it should be proof enough that he believes in the rubbish, too.

I will not tell you the prophecy here. You can take Harry and go to the Department of Mysteries, where they will let Harry see the prophecy at any time. Just try to do it under Dumbledore's radar, please. He seems to have a hidden agenda that makes us fear for our darling boy and, by association, for you as well. His behaviour in the past few weeks has completely thrashed our trust in him. I've never seen it before, but lately he looks at the two of us with eyes that remind me of a beast of prey on the hunt. There's a greedy glimmer in his eye that frankly terrifies me. Therefore, we have also stipulated in our 'official' will, that the Potter Gringotts vaults shall be sealed to anyone but Harry and that Harry can only touch them when he turns 21. We have set up a well-filled trust vault for his schooling. A vault that will be refilled every year to hold 5000 Galleons if any money has been taken out. No money can be taken out before Harry's eleventh birthday. It's the best way to keep away greedy guardians. All the possible guardians save Remus would be able to bring Harry up without money from us, and they would all do it. Even Remus! He would never take money that's not his in the first place.

We feel like we're locked up! And we have great fear that something's going to happen soon. Maybe we've been set up by Dumbledore. There is one stipulation in that prophecy that suggests that our Harry would survive a first confrontation with the Dark Lord and it could well be that Dumbledore is trying to force Voldemort's hand. It's even possible that he can forego the will we have made. That's why we replace this will with this new one. Dumbledore has no idea about it and there's nothing that he can do about it. It has been filed just days after the other one and we're both still alive at this moment."

Iris was floored. There was so much information in this memory! How could she possibly keep all the details, she wondered, when Bloodaxe pushed the bowl over the desk and said:

"This Pensieve is part of your inheritance, Miss Evans, you can watch that memory again, and you can also file it away into a vial. There is a booklet that comes with the bowl, which explains everything this Pensieve can do. And I believe that Mr. Lupin could be of help as well. As far as I'm informed he is a good source of knowledge about the magical world."

"Thank you," she replied weakly.

"Then let me read the will. It is quite short, I assure you."

Remus threw a quick look at Iris and gave her a shy smile. She returned it and both listened to the Goblin who began to read:

"This is our last will and testament, written on this day, the 26th October 1981, at our current home in Godric's Hollow, Wales. We are both of sound mind and body. This will shall replace the earlier will we have filed at Gringotts Bank on 24th October 1981, as the contents of this earlier will has been written down under duress from one of the two witnesses of said will, one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. We have seen ourselves forced to leave out certain stipulations we would have preferred, especially in regards to our son Harry and our sister, Iris Evans, whose guardians we are.

Thus, it is our will that our son Harry will come into his full inheritance on the day of his eleventh birthday. He will inherit not only the Potter estate, but also the title of Lord Potter as befits him. In view of his guardianship, we list the same options again as being Sirius Black and Remus Lupin as the first choice, then Alice and Frank Longbottom, and finally Honoria and Edgar Bones. If none of the aforementioned people has been fit to take over the guardianship, Harry shall become a ward of our sister, Iris Evans, on the day of her eighteenth birthday, when she will be of age in both the magical and Muggle world.

In view of the Potter vaults, our son's guardian, either of the six people mentioned earlier, or our sister Iris Evans, will have access to them fully from the day they take Harry into custody. As soon as this will is processed through the Ministry, the vaults will be open to them and, apart from the earlier agreement with the Goblins in our earlier will, will be strictly the only one(s) to have that access.

To our friend Remus Lupin, we leave a stipend of 2000 Galleons per year, for as long as he will live. Sorry, Remus, you can't say no. It's still a pittance to what you should have to live, but the Ministry laws forbid us to give you more. It is money that's just yours! We also leave you the life-long job of the librarian and curator at Potter Manor, if you want it. Our books and family heirlooms need a good custodian as well. Bloodaxe will hand you a slip of paper with the exact address. You will remember where the house is from then. If necessary, please remove or replace the Fidelius from the house and grounds. You will know how to do that. As the chief librarian, you will be required to take residence in the main house.

Finally, we leave the sum of 500'000 Galleons to our sister Iris. For this, we set up her own Gringotts vault, which she receives on the day this will is read to her. As one of Harry's guardians, we also request that she should take residence at Potter Manor, together with her ward.

Potter Manor is currently under a Fidelius charm. The Secret Keeper is James Potter, the only one apart from James who knows the secret is Lily Potter-Evans. The slip in the hands of the Gringotts Goblins is the only one available. We suggest that the house be set up under a new Secret Keeper as soon as it is used again. There are three house-elves currently living in the house, with full freedom to do everything needed to keep the house in best living condition. Remus and Iris, we know already that you will treat them right and friendly. They are as good as family and will do everything to make your stay a pleasurable one. Remus, as soon as you remember the house again, you can make a Portkey there, it is not protected against those. If you think it's necessary, add the Portkey ward when you move in.

You will have to look for Harry, if he is not with his rightful guardians. We suspect Dumbledore might give him to Petunia and Vernon Dursley, both highly unwelcome guardians as they despise magic and us, meaning Lily and Iris, in particular. If that is the case, they live at 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging in Surrey. Should you need legal consultants to receive custody then we propose to contact Madam Amelia Bones, Edgar Bones' sister, who has just been promoted to Deputy Head of the DMLE. She has the power to help you.

As a last remark, we want to state that our Secret Keeper is Peter Pettigrew. He is an illegal Animagus and his form is that of a rat. If we are betrayed and lose our lives, then he has given away our secret to Voldemort. That makes him either a sympathiser or even a full Death Eater. In any case, it points straight to him as being the person who has given away secrets of the Order of the Phoenix. We also want to state that Albus Dumbledore knows that Peter Pettigrew is our Secret Keeper. However, we believe that he does not know about Peter Pettigrew's Animagus form. Sirius Black will pretend to be our Secret Keeper and thus call the Death Eaters onto his own track. He is ready to give his life for ours, for Harry's!

We love you and hope that none of the above needs to come into effect.

Lily Potter-Evans, James Potter, witnesses Edgar Bones and Frank Longbottom."

Remus was flabbergasted.

"Sirius sits in Azkaban for the murder of Peter Pettigrew. He has claimed to be innocent, we've all heard it, but he hasn't even been granted a trial. I'm sorry, Iris, I know I should remember you, but I don't. I can't remember that Lily even had a sister! Whoever has memory charmed you must have memory charmed me as well. Honoria and I would have been the only ones still in a position to claim Harry's guardianship, but I would have been dismissed because I'm a werewolf and Honoria would have been dismissed because she was barely seventeen back then..."

"I have just sent for our healer and curse breaker, Mr. Lupin, rest assured we'll get to the bottom of this. I have also sent for two specific Aurors, both would have known you and Mr. Black when you were younger, thus we have the correct authority figures on hand if some illegal things come to light."

Iris sat there, still utterly confused and astonished about the will. She was now a very rich woman; half a million Galleons would be roughly five Million British Pounds! If she used the money well she'd never want for money in her life. But she also found herself to be the guardian of a five years old child now. It occurred to her that what she had believed was her parents' deaths were in fact her sister and brother in law's deaths. The only parallel between the two was that they were all caused by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Tears started to leak from her eyes. What a birthday! She turned to Remus:

"Can we go and look for Harry tomorrow, Remus? I have friends coming over tonight to celebrate my birthday. I would invite you as well, if you want to come..."

"Thank you, Iris. I might, I don't think I should be alone at home tonight; I might do some considerable frustration damage. We have to find out what really happened to Sirius! He screamed at the Aurors that he didn't cause the explosion that killed Peter, but no one believed him. They subdued him and that was the last anyone saw of him, they took him straight to Azkaban, you know..."

"It is interesting that all of Harry's possible guardians seem to have vanished or are incapacitated otherwise, or he would be with them, wouldn't he?" Iris asked.

"Absolutely. Edgar Bones was killed two days after the Potters, Frank and Alice were still in hiding and incommunicado and the day after they came out of hiding a year later they were accosted by four Death Eaters who were by that time still unaccounted for, and who subsequently all landed in Azkaban, but the Longbottoms survived the attacks only in a state of complete unawareness. I'm unfit, Sirius is in prison, which left Honoria, who at the time was declared unfit to become a guardian, even though she already had a daughter of Harry's own age."

There was a knock on the door and the Aurors entered, shortly followed by an old Goblin and a young curse breaker, who turned out to be Bill Weasley. Iris's face brightened a little.

"Bill! I wondered if that freshly appointed curse breaker Bloodaxe mentioned could be you! It's good to see you again!"

"Hello Iris! I didn't know it was you I had to check up for memory charms... – oh, hi Remus!"

"Hi, Bill! You've finished your apprenticeship then?"

"Yeah, I have, just this spring. I'm actually in Egypt now, but they sent for me two days ago to come to the London branch. Mum was already afraid they thought it over and would dismiss me."

"I'm sure you'd be too good to let go. It seems that someone has tampered with our memories, Iris's as much as mine."

"We'll get to the bottom of that, I assure you!"

Bloodaxe also introduced the Aurors:

"I believe you already know Mr. Alastor Moody, Mr. Lupin?"

"Yes, I do! It's good to see you again, Alastor."

"You too, you young whelp. How have you been doing? Shame you didn't keep up the contact!"

"Didn't want the pity," Remus mumbled.

"No pity from me, young man. You don't need that. You were always a good lad. More's the shame that the Ministry won't accept you into its Auror ranks, you'd be a real asset! This here is Kingsley Shacklebolt; you might have known him at Hogwarts, though he was a Ravenclaw. He's my current apprentice."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Shacklebolt," said Remus and offered his hand.

"And you. Please call me Kingsley, I always look around for my dad if anyone calls me Mr. Shacklebolt," Kingsley replied and grinned, "and you were a few years ahead of me in Hogwarts."

"And I'm Remus, then. This is Iris Evans, Lily Potter's younger sister. She was only about fourteen when James and Lily were killed. And she remembers even less than I do!"

"Who do you think might have obliviated you?" Moody asked.

"First suspect would be Dumbledore. James and Lily hinted at possible foul play from his side in their will."

"I never heard they had a will after they died. If memory serves me right then Dumbledore was the one who said that there wasn't a will," said Moody and looked mystified.

"Well, we have just found out that they actually made one and another a few days later, with different witnesses and explicitly recalling the earlier one. With very sound reasons why. You can read it later on, Iris and I have just heard it now."

"They made another will? That's unusual."

"Indeed they did. They claimed they had to write the first one under duress from Dumbledore."

The parties sat themselves around a conference table and Bloodaxe led the procedures. Under the watchful eyes of the Aurors, the Goblin healer went around searching for any evidence of memory charms. It didn't take him too long to find the traces. Bill waited respectfully until he was called to break through those charms. Breaking memory charms was one of the first things he had learned as a curse breaker. While it was difficult for the wizards and witches, the Goblins had taught him their own methods of unmasking such charms and reclaiming the lost memories. Thus, he gently removed the blocks from the original memories. Remus let out a gasp, as he was able to access a whole host of memories that had been lost to him before. But his gasp was nothing compared to the screams that came from Iris, as more and more of her own memories were uncovered. She recovered slowly and the Goblin healer showed her how to take calming long breaths of air, which slowly brought her back down to earth. But she began to cry, because she remembered so many people that were around her before that Halloween night four years earlier. There were especially the Marauders and Harry, the precious little boy she had loved so much. She distinctly remembered Charlus and Dorea Potter, James' parents. And of course, she now remembered the manor house that had become her home after her parents' deaths.

A protocol of the day's proceedings was taken and signed by all parties. Moody was furious. He knew now that his old friend Albus Dumbledore was obviously not what he pretended to be. Moody had a good team of investigators, which he could set on the case and he would have them push their noses into everything the Hogwarts headmaster was up to outside of his school. He knew that the latest minister, Cornelius Fudge, had only been installed a few years ago and called upon Dumbledore at every turn for advice. Moody planned to open his eyes subtly to the headmaster and he planned to, at the same time, investigate Fudge's dealings with Lucius Malfoy. As Moody never had liked Fudge in the first place, he was sure there was something less than kosher going on between the two and this was now the perfect opportunity to snoop around.

Moody turned to Iris:

"Miss, I shall look into the files at the Ministry, about the current place of residence of young Mr. Potter. I shall send you an owl, probably still tonight."

"Thank you, Mr. Moody. These papers are now already filed and that means they're sufficient to take over the guardianship. I might be young, but I can provide for Harry's well-being and I will do so. After all, I helped care for him from the first day he was alive! If Dumbledore has gone that far to remove all rightful guardians from Harry's life he probably hasn't chosen the best guardians for the boy."

"Certainly not if he's given them to Petunia and Vernon Dursley," Remus remarked.

"We will find the boy, lassie, no worries," Moody promised.

In the meantime, Iris's day became a little better again once she left the Gringotts building. Bill came along as he was coming to her house later on anyway and they invited Remus along. Before they went, Iris told them about her housemate Cindy and that she had planned to pick up some of Florean Fortescue's best ice cream. Bill took hold of the ice cream so Iris could side-along apparate all three of them to her new house. They found Cindy happily working in the kitchen. Iris introduced Bill and Remus to her.

"This is Bill, who I told you would be here tonight, but I brought another guest; this is Remus Lupin, an old friend of my sister's. Strange to say that when even this morning I had no idea I even had a sister. Seems that actually I had two, one of them still alive..."

"No! Have you had the opportunity to see her?"

"Not yet, and I don't think I'd really want to. She hated me back then and wouldn't like me any more now. I'm magical, just like my next older sister Lily was, and Petunia hates that! She hates the very thought of magic. And we think she currently holds custody over my nephew, who she probably hates as well, because he is magical, too."

"Oh no! Can't you take him in then? There is a third bedroom in the house anyway..."

"I can and I will, but we can't go before tomorrow. If I take him I'm sorry to say that I will be under obligation to live at another house, his family's manor house, which is too far from here for you to come along. So we just hold that party tonight and then we'll go and see him tomorrow!"

A fun evening was shared by all. They barbecued Muggle style, and ate and drank until very late. The garden received its baptism in the best possible way, with a cheerful bunch of people who celebrated the eighteenth birthday of the young witch in their midst. An owl that arrived just after dark held the news that Moody had found Harry's current guardians, which were indeed the Dursleys. Remus swore loudly.

"I bet they hate him. I bet they don't treat him the way he deserves to be treated. I can't wait until we get him away from there, Iris," he yelled. "That is, if you want me to come with when you get him," he continued, a bit more subdued.

"Of course you come with! I don't think I could pull this through without some support, Remus! After all they obviously wanted us to look after them together," she replied, grinning.

"Lily and James have rather underhandedly set us up well there at Potter Manor, haven't they?" Remus asked, grinning again, too.

"They did. Looks like Lily was a Marauder after all."

"Certainly as much as Peter wasn't in the end…"

Moody said he'd be with them to pick Harry up at nine in the morning. He would meet them at Iris's place before apparating her to Harry's address. As an addendum, the letter also told them that Moody had been unable to find a transcript of any trial for Sirius and that he would talk to Madam Bones the next morning, about setting up a trial and a Veritaserum questioning.

"That's excellent. She's now the head of the DMLE and will be in a position to grant that trial and questioning. I want to know if Sirius is a victim or a perpetrator," Remus remarked.

"Me too! He just didn't seem the type to do something like that."

"Not in our view, in any case. But even I believed the Ministry. One thing is sure: as he wasn't their Secret Keeper then I'm sure he hasn't killed the Muggles and Peter. And as Peter was the Secret Keeper he would have had enough reason to kill the bloody rat."

"I agree. But first things we have to go and look for Harry and get him out of Petunia's clutches."

She asked where Remus lived and he gave her the address of his parents' house in Cornwall. They fixed a time for the next day when they would meet up and pay her dear sister a visit. Iris then asked Bill whether he was staying with his parents.

"Yes, I am. Do you want me to come with you? I am on vacation until next weekend. Bound to return to Egypt on Sunday morning."

"That's great! You're welcome to come with us then."

Bill was the last to apparate out of Iris's house. As they had cast strong silencing charms and notice-me-not charms over the house and garden, none of the neighbours had even noticed that she had guests. Cindy had been entertained by the cheerful witches and wizards in attendance all night, with lots of magic.

As they climbed the stairs to go to bed, she said:

"I feel totally inadequate compared to you guys. What are you going to do now? Will you still study?"

"I'll have to see what we can do, but I don't think I have to change these plans. Even though we move to the Manor, Harry will be completely well with Remus during the days and I'll be there as well, even if I do have to study. And I really want to continue with my education."

"Can't wait to meet the little guy, Iris. He sounds like he was a delightful baby."

"A sweetie. The ideal mixture between his mum and dad. I look almost like his mum did, and he's inherited much of her facial expression and her eyes. And he looked to have received his dad's black hair."

"Sounds lovely. Anyway, good night, Iris, sleep well."

"And you, Cindy."

 **Bevendean, Brighton, August 13, 1985**

The next morning there was a ring on her doorbell and Iris found Mad-Eye Moody behind the door. She invited him inside and offered him a cup of tea.

"Thank you, I'll have one. You wouldn't have a kipper or something to go with?" Moody asked, always out for a free meal.

She grinned at his straightforwardness.

"Sure. I'm waiting for Bill and Remus, come in, take a seat here in the kitchen."

"Neat place here..."

"Thanks. I bought it only two months ago when I returned from Hogwarts. My foster parents had found it and suggested it to me. This whole estate is brand new."

A short time later Remus turned up, followed by Bill and both of them joined them for a spot of tea. Moody handed Iris the certified papers from the Ministry.

"This is your legitimisation to remove Harry from your sister's custody. She will not even have to sign him over; it's just to inform her in legalese to hand the boy over to you. The moment she touches the parchment the contract will be sealed. If need be we shall tell her so, if not then she'll get the thing to read it and won't be the wiser about the sealed contract. In any case, it serves as her waiver for the custody. Harry is in her custody, so no consent of her husband is needed either."

"Have you found out what really happened with the will and all?" Remus asked.

"Oh yes. Dumbledore, as the head of the Wizengamot, claimed that they didn't have a will, and thus handed over the boy to his last remaining blood relative, as was usual for such cases. It being the day after Voldemort had fallen and the first day of peace the Wizengamot quickly agreed that this was best. I think in there, no one really questioned at all whether there really was no will and Dumbledore had it sealed immediately. I brought the copy of yesterday's procedures at Gringotts and the copy of the second will to Amelia this morning. It was interesting to see her reaction. She paled when she saw the stipulations. She would like to see Lily's recorded memory, lassie, and I admit, so would I."

"She can see it, I'll take it in tomorrow," Iris promised.

"That's fine; I can copy it, thank you. Now, all we have to do is go there and knock on that door, ask to see Harry and to take him away."

"What if Dumbledore has him tracked?" Remus asked.

"We'll check. He'll know soon, anyway. Never underestimate him, as he's a powerful adversary. And his trickery is as scary as his raw power."

"We're well aware of that. What if he turns up?"

"I don't think he'll become violent. He'll probably try his old tricks of guilt-tripping everyone," Moody supposed.

"Of that I'm sure. But if there's something foul, and it has to be if he even memory charmed Iris and me, then I'm not going to back down. I have quickly been to Potter Manor and I can easily make a Portkey for us there as I've already taken down the Fidelius, we'll need to replace it pronto as soon as we get there. Obviously I couldn't do that since I will be living there," said Remus.

"That might be a good idea. Here's a newspaper, that works well enough," Moody decided. "And then we can replace the Fidelius Charm, I'll be the Secret Keeper if you'd like. Or young Bill Weasley could be it… we'll both not live there permanently."

"I suggest we use a double layer. You'll be the Secret Keeper and I'll keep the Secret of you being the Secret Keeper," Bill offered, proving that his apprenticeship at Gringotts had made him even sharper than he already was!

"Sounds like a good idea to me. That will be the first thing we'll do once we're all there."

Remus cast the spell on the newspaper and Iris took it in her bag. They wanted to be prepared if anything went wrong.

Bill had turned up as the last of their party and the four of them apparated to a small copse of wood near the Dursleys' residence. Moody suggested:

"We'll stay disillusioned and let you go ahead first. If your sister doesn't comply then we'll come forth and help you, lassie."

"Fine with me. Let's go!"

A few minutes later, the young witch, wearing perfectly 'normal' clothes, stepped on the stoop of the Dursleys' house. She knocked on the door and waited. It took a while until she heard steps and a voice hissed:

"Go to your room, boy!"

The door opened and Iris looked into the face of her oldest sister for the first time in about seven years.

"You!" hissed Petunia and her voice didn't sound nice.

"Yes, me! I need to discuss something with you, let's go inside."

Before Petunia could launch a protest, Iris pushed her back inside the house and waited a moment before she closed the door. Enough time to allow Moody, Remus and Bill entrance. She quickly closed the door and looked around. The hallway was impeccably clean and boring.

"What do you want, freak? I won't give you any money..."

"I wouldn't take any either, I have enough for myself. What I want is Harry."

"What Harry?"

"Cut the case, sister, you have custody of our nephew Harry and I'm here to take over. Where is he? Outside, playing?"

"You actually want the whelp? He is useless!"

"More's the reason to hand him over to my care. As far as I remember he's five years old and doesn't have to have a use at all! Here's an official paper that allows me to take him away from here at once."

Iris handed over the parchment and Petunia read over it quickly, thus sealing the contract. Her sister's face actually brightened when she read that she could get rid of the unwanted monster in her house.

"Where do I sign?" Petunia asked.

"You don't need to sign. Could you pack up Harry's belongings? Where is he at all?"

"You can wait outside; I bring him and all of his stuff."

Iris nodded and left the house. That was very fishy. She was glad that the three disillusioned men were still inside because she was sure there was something her sister tried to hide.

Inside, Remus carefully followed Petunia into the corridor, which seemed to lead to the kitchen and saw her standing still and screeching at a small door underneath the staircase:

"Come out, boy, and take your stuff with you!"

There was a little scramble and the small door opened to the outside. A boy who looked like he was about three years old, looked out and reluctantly asked:

"All of it?"

"All of it. We're finally getting rid of you, you useless freak."

More scrambling and finally, the child crawled out of the cupboard, carrying a few garments and a worn baby blanket. Petunia roughly pulled him by the ear and dragged him to the door, opened it and pushed him out without a further word. She banged the door closed. Bill, Moody and Remus watched with horror in their eyes. They immediately popped out of the house and found Iris, who ran up to the child.

"Harry, oh, sweet little one, how could she be so cruel? What a nasty piece that woman is!"

Harry had lost his balance on the stoop and had fallen on the hard flagstones. He didn't cry, just scrambled to gather himself and his 'stuff' together, then he looked at the young woman in front of him with trepidation. Iris saw that he tried his hardest not to cry. She approached him carefully.

"Is everything alright? Did you get hurt?"

He shook his head, no, and to her horror, Iris didn't know whether he meant no, I'm not alright or no, I didn't get hurt.

"I'm Iris, your mum's younger sister, Harry. I only just became old enough to take over guardianship for you, and I'm going to take you to your family's old house now, where we will live together. Is that okay?"

"My family has a house?" he asked, astonished, but then he quickly put his hand over his mouth and said: "Sorry, I'm not going to bother you with questions again."

"I don't mind questions, Harry, ask them any time, please! Come, we have to get away from here, I don't want you to suffer Petunia any longer. Are these your only clothes?"

"They're Dudley's. I don't get new clothes. I'm a freak."

"Nonsense. Is that what she thought of you? Blast that woman! She hated Lily and me already. Just because we're witches, you know. She can't stand magic and hates everyone who is magical. That's why she probably hated you, too. You can leave this rubbish here, we're going to get you all new clothes and toys."

Then Iris saw the blanket. She nearly cried when she recognised it as one of Harry's baby blankets. It was the only thing she took along. She held out her hand and asked:

"Ready for a little walk?"

"Okay."

Harry allowed her to take his little hand and they began to walk back to that little forest, where Iris stopped to wait for the three men to materialise again. Before she allowed them to do that, she warned Harry:

"Harry, I was not all alone just now, when I came to fetch you. Had there been trouble with your aunt, I would have had the help of three friends. They are going to make themselves visible again in a minute, I just wanted to warn you not to be frightened. All three of them knew your parents well."

Remus, Bill and Moody dropped their disillusionment charms and smiled down on Harry.

"Hello, Harry! I'm happy to see you again. I used to hold you often when you were a baby. My name is Remus Lupin," Remus started. "This here is Bill Weasley, and this here is Alastor Moody. I'll also live with you at your parents' old family house. I have only just begun to work there as the family librarian and curator. Truth is I'm only starting today!"

Harry looked around and squinted at the men as if they were ghosts. All three men were still under the impression of what they had just witnessed before. Moody had plans to show the memory of the boy's treatment at his former guardian's hand to his boss, Amelia Bones. She would probably be outraged enough to warrant an investigation for child abuse. It had been a long time since his own children had flown the nest, but as gruff as the old Auror was in his behaviour, as good a father he had been when his children were small.

"Have you been hurt, Harry? I would like it if a healer saw you as soon as possible. I think it would be best to go to your house right now."

"Where is this house?" Harry asked.

"In South Wales, Harry, above Cardiff. Do you know where that is?" asked Remus.

"No. I don't start school 'til September. Dudley goes to preschool, but I'm not allowed to. I do chores."

"Well, then let's take you there. Do you want to hold him, Iris?"

"Yep. Come here, little one!"

Iris lifted the child. Harry tried to hide it, but he winced. All four adults heard it and while they didn't openly comment, they already decided to find out what had happened with the child in the four years in his aunt's 'care'.

Remus proceeded to hold out and activate the Portkey, when they saw a little old woman come rushing after them. She called out to them, astonished to meet them.

"Oh, it's you! I saw someone walking away with Harry and..."

"Arabella!"

"Mrs Figg!"

Several voices showed that they recognised the old lady. She breathed hard and asked:

"What are you doing with Harry?"

"I am his new guardian according to Lily's will, which came into force yesterday. Why do you ask?"

"Arabella, are you here on Dumbledore's order?" Moody asked.

"Kind of. He asked me to watch out for Harry and to report on his growth and everything. He didn't tell me that someone would take Harry, Alastor."

"Lily and James made a second, later will, because they feared some foul play by Dumbledore. Harry wasn't to be placed with Petunia Dursley at all. They wanted Harry to grow up in their own house, surrounded with friends. What did you report to Albus?"

"That they never really let the little one out and that they probably didn't treat him well. I suspect that they used him as a punching ball for their son, Dudley. The boy is only a few weeks older than Harry, but he's about twice as big and he bullies almost all the children in the neighbourhood, but they're blaming all occurrences on Harry. I'm quite sure they didn't feed the child properly. I kept telling Albus that he has to come and see it for himself, but he never wanted to do that. He kept telling me that Petunia wouldn't hurt her nephew, he was family after all... so I suppose you don't want him to know that Harry has a new guardian now?"

"Precisely."

"Then I have to move away immediately. He'll know that I know something about it... not only will he find out, because I can't occlude my mind, but he'll quite certainly obliviate me," Mrs Figg sighed.

"We can help you, Arabella, I'll be back in half an hour at your house and together we'll remove everything you want out and take you to Potter Manor as well, okay?" Remus promised.

She beamed.

"You'd do that for a poor old squib? Thank you so much, Remus, you always were one of the best!"

"No problems, Arabella. You're one of the old crowd after all. Just come right along and we'll come back to clear out your house."

Iris held Harry, Remus, Moody and Mrs Figg held on to the newspaper and Remus activated the Portkey that took them straight to the Potter family manor.

Everyone in the group, who had never seen the manor before, gasped when they landed in front of it. Iris, Remus and Moody stood there and smiled at the wondrous eyes of their companions. Harry, still a little dazed from his fall, looked at the house that would hold his uncle's about twenty times with the greatest astonishment. Iris now remembered and her wondrous gaze was replaced with fond memories.

"I can't believe that those memories of two happy years in this house have been stolen from me," she whispered.

"I can believe that someone could stoop to such a low level; I have seen the worst in people after all, but I honestly never expected Dumbledore to be one of this sort," Moody growled.

Mrs Figg had only known about the house, of course, but while she looked at it in wonder she kept listening to what Moody and Iris talked about.

"What do you mean with that?" she asked, turning her gaze from the house back to the people in front of her.

"I will tell you after we've moved your things. What would you like us to take along, Arabella?" Remus brought her back to the present.

"My eight kneazles of course and my clothes. Could you pack my personal effects, too? I don't need the furniture, of course; you can leave that behind. Just my books, crafts and plants... and be so kind to empty the fridge, too, and do you know how to turn off the electrics?"

"I do. Do you want me to block the floo?"

"Yes, please. If you can do that, too, that would be fine!"

"I'll be right back."

Remus, Moody and Bill turned on the spot and were gone. Harry stared at the place that Remus had just vacated and pointed, the question dying on his lips. Iris laughed.

"That's part of what we'll explain to you in a moment, Harry. Let's first go in and meet the house-elves. I bet they're still all here!"

Iris led everyone inside and they stepped into the cool hallway. It was a huge entry hall. Harry stared at the marble floors and the smooth walls, covered with many paintings, some landscapes, some compositions, and many portraits. There was a sweeping staircase leading to the upper floors, the little boy looked up and only saw the landing, from which obviously corridors spread out to both sides. Underneath the staircase, there was a double door, which stood open, and through which Harry saw a room that would have taken the entire footprint of the house on Privet Drive. He asked himself if he was in a fairy tale. This couldn't be his family's home now, could it? It seemed like out of this world!

"Here, Harry, this is your home! Your dad grew up here and before him countless Potter generations since this house was built in the late 1600s. I'll take you for a walk..." Iris explained to him, but she was interrupted, when three little beings popped in, crying happily:

"Master Harry! Master Harry, you is back! You is finally back home!"

Harry stared at the little creatures, bewildered and frightened. They had just called him Master! He couldn't fathom what they were and how they even knew him, but Iris kept holding his hand and pressing it in a reassuring way. She turned to the house-elves and greeted them:

"Hello Blinky, Toni and Shelly! It's so good to be at home again, finally! I didn't even know this place existed anymore, but now I'm back and I'm going to stay here with little Harry. You have kept the house in perfect order it seems."

"Mistress Iris, we is doing what we can. It is being almost too long. If it wasn't for the portraits that is giving us the heads up, we would have gone insane."

"Let's hope nothing like that befalls you now that Harry is back in the house. He has not been treated well in the past four years, we need to encourage him and make him very happy now, I'm sure you are going to help me with that, won't you?"

"Yes, Mistress Iris, we is helping you. What would you have us do for that first?"

"Can you tell me if there is any children's clothing in the house that would fit Harry? Otherwise, I'd like one of you to make a trip to Diagon Alley to buy him the clothes he needs. All he has is what he has on his skin. And I do not call that clothing, I call that rags!"

"Yes, Mistress, we is checking the storage. Or else we is shopping for you."

"I knew I could count on you. But first let me introduce you to him properly. Harry, these are Blinky, Toni and Shelly, and they're your family's house-elves. They are bound to the house and your family and if you call one of them, they will be with you instantly wherever you are!"

Harry's eyes showed fear of the unknown, but he was clever enough to recognise that no danger would come from these creatures, who were hardly taller than he himself.

Everything went too fast for him. He could hardly take in one detail when the next already bore down on him. Iris lifted him up and held him tight, even though he tried to struggle in her arms. He wasn't used to positive physical contact anymore. The only physical contact he remembered had been the rough movements of his aunt's when she put him in the tub and scrubbed him down or the way both his aunt and uncle tore on his arm when they dragged him somewhere, usually into his cupboard. While the cupboard was a prison to keep him in, to Harry it was also the only place in the house at Privet Drive where his 'family' was kept out. It meant that Dudley couldn't poke or hit him, trip him at every possible opportunity or shove him down the staircase. Physical contact meant being hit more often than Harry cared to remember. This here he didn't recognise at all. He didn't remember how it felt when his mother or his father had held him on their arms, or even his aunt Iris. He didn't remember his godfather or his other honorary uncle, Remus, and he didn't remember all the smiling people in the Order of the Phoenix, who had loved him and cared for him.

Harry had forgotten all of that and he was overwhelmed by the tenderness he received now. It all went too fast for him to decide whether he liked it or not. But he was certainly ready to try some more of this aunt's kindness. He only hoped she wouldn't find out how bad he was, and why his other aunt and uncle punished him all the time.

He looked up at her and nodded. Not that he believed her, but he smiled shyly at the house-elves. Blinky moved forward and took his hand.

"We is showing Master Harry his room. Would you like to see it, Master?"

Harry looked up at Iris again and only when he saw her smile and tell him to just go and see, he replied in the positive. She added:

"Remus was here earlier and alerted the house-elves. I'm sure they prepared your daddy's child room for you, go and look! We'll come and get you a little later!"

Shelly remained behind and waited for her commands. Iris turned to her and introduced her to the old squib.

"This is Mrs Arabella Figg, Shelly. Please install her in a guest suite large enough to also house several kneazles. They will come back with Remus in a moment."

"I is doing that, Mistress Iris. The rooms will be ready in a moment."

"Great. Please find me afterwards, we'll still have a lot of work!"

She watched as the two left the Hall. Iris herself took the path to her own room under her feet. When she reached it, she opened the door and almost cried. She looked around. It looked exactly like it did when she left it. That startled her, but then she knew why the room had been left untouched. She had been at Hogwarts when James and Lily were moved to Godric's Hollow. She was expected to be included there when she returned to Lily for her Christmas Holiday, but of course that blasted Halloween had come between and except for the funeral, she never left Hogwarts. Right after that funeral Dumbledore must have obliviated her and set her up with her foster parents.

Her foster parents! She wondered if they were in Dumbledore's league on this! She had to talk to them and try to find out how much they knew. Then she sunk down on the chair in front of her desk and let her head fall on her arms. She had only just turned eighteen, this was simply too much! What else would be dumped on her now? How could she properly take care of her five years old nephew? She wondered if she should drop out of uni before she even started.

But after a few minutes, she composed herself and thought about the practicalities. She was lucky, she thought, because within a few minutes she had gained two allies in bringing up Harry. Arabella and Remus would look after him well when she was at university. She simply had to learn something to be able to stand on her own feet some time soon, even if she had inherited a load of Galleons. This was Harry's house; she couldn't stay here forever, even if she might keep her room to visit once Harry would take over. So she resolved to ask this, and only this, of Remus and the old woman. If Mrs Figg was to stay here, Iris was sure she would like to help. She seemed to like Harry genuinely.

In the meantime, Remus had gathered all he needed from Arabella's house. He left it with the contents of her different armoires, dressers and cupboards, and with all eight of her kneazles. All of the possessions he brought back to her were now rejoined with her in her new rooms. Remus helped her settle in and even transfigured a few things to her liking. She beamed and said:

"This is an amazing place. I knew that James was well off, but... thank you so much, Remus, that was well done!"

"You're very welcome, Arabella. You said that you told Albus about Harry's circumstances?"

"I did! It was hard to watch how they treated the boy. I only saw them outside of course, but I don't think they treated him any better inside of their house though to the outside they probably didn't want anyone to notice, so maybe he was treated worse inside."

"Apparently a lot worse actually. We'll have to treat him very softly in the next few months, to give him time to heal and gain some trust in us."

"Are you sure that he'll be safe from Albus?"

Remus grinned.

"Yes. The necessary documents were already filed by the Ministry. He should have already received a note about the new guardianship. I bet he's looking for the new guardian frantically!"

"We can't let Iris return to her house tonight! If he was the one who obliviated her, he'll find her fast enough!"

"That's clear. She'll call her housemate and tell her. We have to sit down now to discuss how we'll proceed anyway. It's good to have Alastor on board as well. He may grunt about having to carry around your kneazles, but he'll be an excellent ally!"

Mrs Figg smiled. Not everyone was fond of her kneazles, but as long as they had been brought in, she would take care of them herself again. She had always liked the old man, even if he had a tendency to grouch. It was honest grouching, she was heard saying.

Remus still had more to transport. He asked Blinky to help him and emptied his cottage to the last book and his own pets, two cats and his owl. While Blinky was busy, Remus closed down the floo connection and reset it to work with a password only.

He called for Iris and told her to take the afternoon and talk to Harry, while he whizzed around for the safety aspects. A portrait in the library had guided him to the family wards and already told him how to set them up in the morning. He would now be able to put the house on lockdown until they settled in. And he was just in time, because not five minutes after the wards were reset, Albus-too-many-names-and-titles-Dumbledore banged his nose on them.

Albus Dumbledore had lived through an unpleasant day. It had started when he got up to eat his breakfast at Hogwarts, where a Gringotts owl found him and delivered a letter. That letter told him bluntly that in executing the will of Lily and James Potter according to their last wishes he was relieved of the guardianship over their son, Harry, as of this day. In addition he was to relinquish all Potter possessions in his hands to the Goblins, followed by a fairly long list that included the Invisibility Cloak. Since Albus distinctly remembered that he had sealed their will, he was completely flabbergasted and floo-called Gringotts to clear up this misunderstanding. When he was finally getting closer to the competent goblin, he heard a crash and most of his gadgets that were monitoring Harry at Privet Drive either stopped working, exploded or sputtered gibberish.

Bloodaxe informed him extremely coolly that what Dumbledore had sealed was an earlier will and that he, Bloodaxe, had their original and later will and that it was already filed at the Ministry. Since Dumbledore had only SEALED the original will, rather than to execute it, it had become redundant. Dumbledore noticed that he had been well and truly had by those he himself wanted to trick. He didn't even have the greatness to admit to himself that James and Lily were just about the bravest people to accept their early deaths to sabotage his plans.

The rest of the day, he spent frantically looking for Harry's new guardian. A visit to Privet Drive, where he was not welcome at all, and then to Gringotts, where he found out nothing further, and in the end to the Ministry, where he could finally see the will in question and find out Harry's new guardian. It wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. Madam Bones pointed out to him that she would have an investigation started and if he so much as thought of trying to obliviate her he would find himself arrested right away. Then she had the audacity to tell him that the knowledge that the testament brought was already entered as the first evidence into the investigation. It wouldn't help him much knowing who the new guardian was.

Of course, he remembered Lily's sister; she'd only just graduated from Hogwarts in the summer after all. He swore, because she was of legal age in both, the magical as well as in the Muggle world. This will and its instructions had been well planned out and he found himself thoroughly outmanoeuvred. Not one to give up immediately, he didn't even think of the warning he had received at the DMLE and though he was already quite exhausted when he reached the home, where Iris Evans had spent the last four years, he knocked on the door and Iris's foster parents swiftly informed him that Iris had used the money from her inheritance, and had bought a house of her own. Her foster parents didn't know that anything was amiss and gave Dumbledore the address.

Of course, the old man went there on the spot. He found the house quite empty, not even a feather of Miss Evans' owl was visible. At a complete loss, he disillusioned himself and waited in the garden for some movement. He thought he was at a wrong address, when a young girl arrived later in the afternoon and let herself in. He kept waiting, but an hour later, he was still there, waiting, and no inch closer to the Evans girl.

He swore. All he knew was that Iris Evans now had Harry Potter. The prophesised child that he had planned to use for the Greater Good, the child who would be able to hand the final blow to the Dark Lord Voldemort. No one who thought Albus Dumbledore to be the greatest wizard of the Light since Merlin (Albus himself regularly chuckled about that because he knew better, he knew that Merlin wasn't a Light wizard and neither was he, but he did enjoy the reputation) would have believed that the normally rational and cool man slavishly believed in a Prophecy.

He was ready to tear out his own hair when he had a revelation. If she had been with the Goblins, they would have told her about the Potter ancestral home. Of course, he had relieved the girl of all knowledge about the Potters beyond the fact that Lily and James had been killed. He hadn't erased all of her knowledge, rather he'd suppressed and replaced it in her mind. He didn't want a vegetable, because a vegetable couldn't be used anymore. But the Goblins would have been able to repair his work. Dumbledore instantly vacated the spot he had held for the past several hours and apparated to the place where he knew the Potters had dwelled for centuries. It was a wonderful place Dumbledore thought fondly, and only now noticed that he could remember where it was, but he instantly planned to claim it for himself after the Potter child had been taken care of once he had eliminated the Voldemort brat. He would finally have a proper residence for himself where he could reap the fruit of all of his hard work of scheming, manipulating, tricking and cheating. Bad enough that the Potters, even in their original will, had closed down all of their vaults and would only allow Harry to use his trust vault when he turned eleven. Dumbledore still swore that his attempts at gaining access to the Potter wealth had been thwarted by those devilish Goblins.

All that was far in the future though, because at the moment he didn't have any hold on his pawn. Without sparing the small house another thought Dumbledore jumped up and disapparated.

Only to be thrown back violently banging his nose on the wards Remus had reset not five minutes before. Even though it broke Dumbledore's nose the old man didn't give up that easily. What there was known about warding, he mostly knew, so he started to study the wards on the house and expected to have them unravelled in no time.

An hour later, he was still clueless. He swore again - he didn't think that he ever had a day in his life when he had sworn so often and so violently! - and regretted that he hadn't ever thought of putting the place under a Fidelius with himself as its Secret Keeper as long as he could have still done that. But who would have expected the Potters to counter his scheming so deviously. That week he let them live under their Fidelius was obviously already too long! He'd had a week to go and hide this building and he hadn't used it!

Just as he thought about that, the gated property vanished in front of his very eyes! Whoever was in there obviously did what he had failed to do! Dumbledore screamed his frustration into the sky and didn't care that a whole host of little animals fled from the place in fright. He turned around and vanished from the spot.

* * *

 **Chapter 2 - Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper?**

Inside the manor house, the group of people who had been thrown together so suddenly finally began to assess things. They met in the large salon on the ground floor and started to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

"I think the most important part is telling Harry what is going on here," Remus said, smiling at the little boy.

Harry sat on the rug, timidly looking at all the adults, and he could hardly believe that no one said anything derogatory to him. That alone made the situation comfortable for him, but he also waited for 'the other shoe to drop'. In his experience so far, he was always at fault. It was only a question of time until one of the adults would bear down on him, accusing him of whatever might have gone wrong.

Nothing like this happened, even Alastor Moody smiled down at Harry, and that was a most frightening view! Iris turned to him first and said:

"You must think your world has gone under, Harry, and we're truly sorry about that. It would be our fault, but we definitely will make it better from now on. First order: no more housework. Second order: we take over your schooling until we might find a better solution for that part. Third order: you need to be fitted with loads of clothes, toys, books etc. But there are some dangers to consider, we can't simply go out with you until they are removed."

"What dangers?" Harry asked timidly. He held his breath, because at the Dursleys he was severely punished for asking questions. They had often come out of his mouth and he never learned not to ask them.

But Iris didn't seem to mind at all, as she replied:

"Let me first explain to you what happened to your parents, Harry. Your mum and dad were murdered by the Dark Lord Voldemort when you were still a baby."

"Murdered? What does that mean?"

"They were killed, Harry. There is a spell that we call an Unforgivable spell, and that spell was used to kill first your dad and then, when she wouldn't get out of the way to protect you, your mum. They certainly didn't want to leave you, but a close friend of theirs had betrayed them. He was supposed to have kept the secret of their location he promised to keep, but he gave it away, so the evil man could find and kill them..."

"...Iris! Remember, Lily said that Peter was her Secret Keeper! Not Sirius, Peter! Ever since yesterday I've had that in the back of my mind, and it's just another piece in this puzzle, because if Peter was the Secret Keeper and not Sirius I can't imagine Sirius to be a murderer! And Dumbledore! He knew that Peter was the Secret Keeper, but he told the Ministry that it was Sirius, he even told me that it was Sirius! He told the whole Order," Remus threw in, all of a sudden remembering that fact again.

It was like an avalanche of confusion, fear, rage and fury that took hold of the adults in the room. It was Moody, who brought them back down to earth.

"We have to come back to that, Remus, as you know I've already talked to Amelia Bones about it. Continue explaining first, Iris," he said in a gruff, but still tender voice that wasn't common for him.

Iris gently explained to Harry who he was, what he was, and about the history of his family in as few words as she could. Harry soaked it up with interested eyes. He was floored about all the information he received now. Finally, Iris asked:

"There is a lot more, Harry, but that would be too much for you to understand yet. We will now have to work on solving a puzzle with quite a few pieces, and it will not be easy to put them all together. We're here for you when you need us though and whatever question you have you can always ask us. Can I give you to Blinky for a while, so that we can talk about these things? There are still many toys in the house, I'm sure Blinky will show you around more thoroughly so you can learn to know the main parts of the house. He'll call us together when it's time to eat dinner."

Harry, ever the pleasant helper, didn't need any more than hearing 'toys' to be happy. He never had any toys as far back as he could remember, so he was all ready to go with Blinky to play for a while. It helped that he was extremely self-sufficient.

The adults started to gather the pieces of the puzzle. Iris set up a piece of parchment and a quill and noted the facts they had:

\- Will sealed by Dumbledore before it could be executed

\- Harry placed with guardians his parents strictly disliked and discouraged

\- Harry was abused

\- Harry's treatment was reported to Dumbledore

\- Dumbledore refused to help

\- The second, now executed will stated that Harry was to be placed in the custody of Iris Evans. – Ticked!

\- Pensieve Lily clearly stated that Peter Pettigrew was her Secret Keeper

\- First will had Dumbledore as witness and also stated that Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper

\- Pensieve Lily also declared that Dumbledore knew that Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper

"It's not very much to start with, but it may only be the first link of a whole chain," Moody mused. He was always more hit wizard than investigator, but he knew that this was one of Remus' strengths and so he let Remus do the thinking.

"I think so, too. Do you think we should get a healer for Harry? He looks healthy enough, but I would like to have a record from someone about possible earlier injuries caused by his guardians," Remus said.

"I can call Poppy over. Even though she's the Hogwarts nurse she won't blab to Dumbledore when I ask her not to do so, and you know that I've taught my children in Occlumency early on," Moody offered.

"Sounds fine by me. Would she be at Hogwarts now?" Remus asked.

"No, she's at home with her family. I'll take a quick hop over there once we're done here for the moment," Moody replied.

"Excellent. Write out a slip with the information for her, so that she can come here. The next point that's important would be contacting Madam Bones again. Maybe we could get her to come here? I want to show her the memory from Gringotts and discuss the will that we discovered. That's as good a place to pick up the thread as any."

Without questioning it, the group started to look at Remus as their leader. Moody declared:

"Remus, you're now the head of this little group. You're the one among us who can scheme the best, so I'll take you to Amelia tomorrow morning, and we'll go over that memory from Lily. Still can't believe we lost that lass! What a gifted young woman. I think I'd want to quarter this Voldemort fellow, but he's been done with now, so..."

"Riddle, Alastor. Tom Marvolo Riddle," said Remus.

"What?"

"Call him by his own name, not this fancy one he made up for himself. His real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, and he was born a half-blood, named after his father Tom Riddle, a Muggle, and his maternal grandfather Marvolo Gaunt, a direct descendant from Salazar Slytherin," Remus quietly elaborated.

The other four around him, even Moody, stared at him in horror. Moody found his voice again first, and asked:

"How on earth do you know that?"

"Snooping around. It was the only thing I could do in the past five years because it was clear to me that he wasn't really gone, just powerless. Dumbledore made me looking around for information, and I've come up with more than I actually told him. He already knew about the family background before, because he brought the Hogwarts letter to Riddle. Riddle had lost both parents and lived in a Muggle orphanage. That's as much as Dumbledore knew for certain. He also knew that Riddle committed his first murder, when he killed his father and grandparents. Seems like his father abandoned his mother when he found out she was a witch and had ensnared him with a love potion. She was pregnant then. Dumbledore knew from Riddle that he was born at the orphanage where he lived and that his mother died just after she had given birth."

Moody looked up sharply.

"I should have known that the old goat knew more than he let on. I think we'll have to enlarge our circle; there are a few people I'd like to bring in, mainly Madam McGonagall, because I know that she opposed to Harry's placement, and Aberforth Dumbledore. Since things are centring around Hogwarts, maybe Filius Flitwick. We don't yet need the fighters, at this point we need the thinkers and it would be good to have a few people who are able to think outside the regular square box to assist you, Remus."

"I agree. What do you think?" Remus handed the question on to Iris, Bill and Arabella.

"I don't have any other opinion than to do what's best. You two know better than I, that's for sure," said Arabella. "I gladly babysit Harry while you solve the puzzle."

Remus smiled:

"That's good, Arabella, thank you. Anything you'll miss while doing that we'll brief you in at dinnertime. What's even better is that Harry knows and trusts you already. We'll have to earn our place in his heart again. To him it must look like I've abandoned him now that he knows about my friendship with James and Lily."

"I don't think this will be too hard, Remus. Your kindness will soon win him over!"

With that, Arabella stood up and went in search of her new charge.

The rest of the group debated on the people they wanted to pull in.

"Mr. Moody, do you really think that it would be a good idea to contact someone who is obviously so closely related to Albus Dumbledore?" asked Bill.

Remus and Alastor grinned evilly.

"Bill, you obviously don't know anything about Aberforth. Ever been in the Hogshead?" said Moody.

"Yes, sure. Seventh years usually preferred to go there, because it had the bad reputation and all... never found it that bad though."

"Remember the scruffy barkeep?"

"Sure. Never got his name though. But he always seemed to know everyone."

"That's because he's as sharp as a freshly sharpened knife, believe me. He's Dumbledore's younger brother and there is definitely no love lost between the two of them. Must have been something way back in their past that split them up. But if Albus says peep, Aberforth says pap, that's how they work. I think they barely get along. And I tell you that Aberforth knows much more than he lets on! He's about three years or so younger than Albus. Since both are considerably older than I am, I have no idea what brought the quarrel on. But one thing is for sure: keeping Aberforth in confidence means keeping his brother out of the loop. Albus has 'used' Aberforth quite a bit in the war, but that's because their goals are probably very similar. Aberforth doesn't mind to let Albus use his pub for espionage, and the Death Eaters were most probably never getting wise about it, they counted on the enmity between the brothers. Since Aberforth hates them even more than Dumbledore, he always passed on information. He looks so dumb and stupid they probably never expected him to understand more than the uttered orders he was given for the beverages. No one in their right mind orders any food there," Moody explained.

"Do you think he keeps this image consciously?" Bill asked.

"Dead sure. His madness has method. He probably won't trust me very far, because he thinks I'm in league with his brother too much. But he's given me invaluable information, more than once."

"I'll contact him then. He'll accept you once he understands that you have seen some truths about his brother. Even if he doesn't trust as easily as Albus."

They handed out the jobs to do on the next day. Bill would take a glamoured Harry to shop and Iris would spend some time at her home to gather all of her things. Remus would go and see Aberforth while Alastor planned to talk to Bones about that memory.

 **The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, August 14, 1985**

Bill returned home that evening. During dinner, he listened how Ginny told Ron a story out of one of these horrible books that had been published about Harry Potter's life after his parents were killed. He took a long, slow breath, and then he turned to Ginny, telling her:

"Ginny, do you believe this story to be true?"

"It's in the book, Bill, of course it's true!" the little girl claimed.

"Did any of you see a picture of Harry that shows him older than one year old?" Bill asked around the table.

"Now that you say it - no, I can't remember having seen any of them at all," Arthur replied.

Molly made a face. She was pleased to see her daughter interested in the young hero. She, like so many other mothers of little girls, dreamed of seeing her Ginny marry Harry Potter one day. What was her oldest son meddling now?

"I can tell you why you haven't seen any pictures. It has come to my knowledge that the boy has been stuck with relatives of his. They are Muggles and they don't like him, because he's a wizard. They're the same as Death Eaters, just among Muggles, in that they know about magic and hate everything about and everyone who has it. I have seen him at Gringotts. Let me tell you that he's not a pleasant sight. Some developments at Gringotts have found him a new guardian and he's been taken out of an extremely abusive surrounding. Someone is getting rich on legends about a boy who didn't even know that he was a wizard until less than twenty-four hours ago. I would suggest that you throw the books out you already have and not buy any new ones, Mum. Because it's most immoral to make money on pure lies while presenting them as truth. Not to mention that Harry is put in a light that doesn't fit him at all. At this moment he's extremely shy and scared and will have to learn to be happy for a while before he can trust happiness and enjoy it. He hardly even knows that his name is Harry because all his relatives ever call him are 'boy' or 'freak'."

Molly sputtered.

"What? What is wrong with giving children a positive image of a hero?"

"Nothing is wrong about giving children a positive image of a true hero, Mum. But it will hurt that particular living 'hero' because he is not a hero in the first place, he only survived an extremely dark curse. Imagine how Harry would feel knowing that people believed him to slay a dragon at three years old when he was told over and over that magic didn't exist when he actually was that age? It's immoral and it's wrong. It's even illegal. I hope his new guardians will sue these publishers and authors to within a Knut of their money! It would be perfectly alright if it was sold for what it really is, pure fiction, and another name was used but they attribute it to a real living boy, which will hurt his reputation something terrible when he becomes aware of it. Think about how he will feel once he gets to Hogwarts and all the other children expect him to do everything perfectly and know everything, just because they've been fed this tripe? Adults may know exactly that it's fiction, but Harry will have to live with his peers - who have read the stories or heard them and who will brutally compare the real Harry with that fictional Harry. What a life can he expect on that basis? How will he ever be able to find friends, not admirers?"

The twins and Charlie listened aptly to their brother's rant. Percy was not there, because he spent some time with his godmother. And Ron was hungry. Arthur, on the other hand, nodded and said:

"You're wise beyond your years, Bill; I admit I never felt good about these stories. I have more than once told you not to read them to Ginny too often, Molly."

"You actually saw Harry at Gringotts, Bill?" asked Fred.

"Yes. I was called in to perform some curse breaking on two people yesterday. I knew them both. Through them I saw Harry this afternoon. One of them is his new guardian."

"You had to break curses on them?" Molly's eyes went wide.

"Yes. Someone very cruel had mangled their memories. It was successful enough, but nothing that couldn't be remedied. But they had distinctly forgotten their connection to anything concerning Harry Potter and his parents."

"What! Who would be so cruel?" Molly asked in a low and angry voice.

"Yes, is there any suspect?" Arthur asked.

"I know that none of you are gossips, so I'll tell you: the great Albus Dumbledore himself. I'm quickly losing most of my reverence for the man, believe me."

"You must be wrong! Albus Dumbledore would never do something like this!" Molly insisted.

"All indications point straight to him. I have seen a memory, in which Lily Potter said that Peter Pettigrew was their Secret Keeper, not Sirius Black. A memory that had been recorded and filed at Gringotts only four days before she was killed. I have seen both wills, and their first one was co-witnessed by Albus Dumbledore. It was Dumbledore who declared that the Potters hadn't made a will and wasn't it Dumbledore, who claimed that Sirius Black had been the Potters' Secret Keeper? This is what sealed Black's fate after all, isn't it? It was enough to send him to Azkaban without a formal trial and it was a blatant lie. It seems that Dumbledore had a personal interest in the murders of the Potters and later in eliminating all possible guardians on their list. But it also seems that the Potters were onto him because they went back to Gringotts and filed the later will directly with the Goblins. That's when Lily Potter left her Pensieve Memory to add credence. This memory will be given to Amelia Bones tomorrow."

"But Dumbledore..." Molly whispered.

"... seems to have an unhealthy interest in the Potter family. He made them write their original will, he forced them to take residence in one of his own properties instead of their ancestral manor and then sealed the will immediately after their deaths before anyone else could even throw as much as a glance at it and told everyone that there hadn't been a will in the first place; of course he had to keep this silent, because he wouldn't have been able to claim there wasn't one, let alone plant the lie about Sirius Black being the Secret Keeper, since the Potters insisted on adding that Peter Pettigrew was it. Luckily, he didn't know that there was a second will, or he would have executed it after all. But he only sealed it. As per the Potters' instructions, the Gringotts Goblins executed the second will a few days ago. It clearly gave Harry's guardianship to someone else who had been deliberately left out of the list in the first will. Dumbledore has taken care to eliminate all possible and suitable guardians from Harry's surrounding. That's as far as we've come in our deliberations of the case so far. We're still working it out slowly, but I'm sure that there will be more and more dragon dung coming to light.

"It's absolutely important for Harry's sake that none of what I've told you gets out. Especially not out to Dumbledore, Mum. If he really is behind all this then he'd be able to stop the investigation that Madam Bones can start. He needs to be presented with the facts. And we need to investigate them before we give anything out to others. I need your oath that you won't speak of anything I've told you about Harry and his family tonight or in the future until I release you from the binding oath."

Arthur immediately gave the oath. Molly did it much more reluctantly. She tended to believe in what the books and newspapers said and she idolised Dumbledore, but her son didn't let her out. She swore on her magic that she would not tell anyone anything about what she heard or would hear about Harry Potter and also that she would not ask anyone else to tell who was present at this point. Bill was relieved. He didn't want to risk their chances of freeing Harry from the headmaster's clutches.

"Who is 'we'?" Molly asked.

"We?"

"You said 'we' before, so I have to think you're in with the people who have taken custody of Harry."

"Oh, yes. One part of 'we' is Alastor Moody."

That immediately told Arthur that everything would be fine.

"You mean Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody? The one who stuck with Dumbledore through thick and thin?" Molly asked, not believing what she heard without confirmation.

"Yes, I mean that Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, Mum. He's quickly becoming disgusted with the headmaster, I can tell you."

That stopped Molly short. She didn't like Alastor's methods, but she did have respect for the old Auror. He was the one who brought down the Death Eaters who had killed her brothers. There was no doubt the old Auror was on the right side of the war.

The seed of doubt he planted into his mother's heart was all Bill needed to proceed:

"We are trying to unravel the net of lies that has brought the Potters to writing a second will, Mum. We want to get as close to the truth as we can, and for that we have to pull the headmaster down from his pedestal. He may be old and knowledgeable, but we don't know whether he really is wise! He holds back things that we should all know and he thinks he's the only one who knows what's good for everyone. I, for one, don't believe any single person can claim that. But we give it to him and don't ever question him. That leads straight into the realm of 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. We didn't want that from Voldemort and we don't want that from Dumbledore either."

"So, what do we want then?"

"A life that's lived by the standards of a moral and judicial code to which we can all agree. We have the laws set right for the most part, we just have to use them right. Dumbledore knows that he can play the game fully because he has the full deck of cards, with all the jokers and trumps, while the rest of the world has at most half a dozen cards and even those must be cracked in places. And of course, not everyone he deals with has the same half dozen cards."

"Bill?" George said. His brother turned to the seven year old again.

"We'll be his friends, won't we, Fred?"

"'Course!"

"I'm sure you will be," Bill replied with a smile.

"But *I* will go to Hogwarts with the Boy-Who-Lived!" cried Ron suddenly. "Mum said so!"

"You will be in his year, Ron. You'll have to become his friend first. You won't be his friend if you think of him as the boy who lived. That will put you in the category of 'fan' or 'admirer', both of which are things he neither needs nor wants."

Iris and Remus spent their time until dinner with Harry. They played with him, which was such a foreign concept to him that he kept getting more nervous, until Remus took him to the library, where he and Harry could talk to his grandparents' paintings. Much to Remus' regret there was no painting in existence of Harry's parents. When he said this, Grandfather Charlus told him to pick two good photos and take them to a magical painter.

"But they would still only remain paintings, Charlus, wouldn't they?" Remus asked.

"If the painter spells them to awaken they will do so. Like us, they will only be imprints of their former selves, that's right, but they will know what James and Lily knew at the time the photo was made. And they can learn what happened in the meantime and recall it. Magical photos are special, too, as you know."

"Yes, that's right. I'll see what I can find. I'd like them to be as close to their deaths as possible then. There were a few in the trunk that was left to Harry at Gringotts. Do you remember a painter?"

"An Italian one, who works just off Diagon Alley, the first alley going off the main alley toward the end of the district. His name is Luigi Pergolesi. He wasn't very old when our portrait was made, so you will probably find him still..."

"I'll ask around, I'm sure I'll find him."

"It is very good to have you home, too, Remus. We're happy that James chose you to be our curator, you are the absolute perfect person for that job. We never had a curator in the house before, you'll probably find work until the end of your days here."

"I'll delve into it as soon as we've unravelled that tapestry of lies and manipulations Dumbledore wove, Charlus."

"That's fine, Remus."

Harry was taken to bed and for the first time since he could remember he was put to sleep in a real bed. Not only that, but it was a great big four poster bed, which almost scared him at first. Iris and Remus read him a good night story and then hugged him good night. He fell asleep quickly and slept through until morning, when he was woken up by Blinky.

 **Potter Manor, August 14, 1985**

Blinky helped him wash up, brought him some nice clothes from his dad's wardrobe and showed him back down to the dining room, where Harry met Remus, Iris and old Mrs Figg. Bill also came in as well as Alastor.

After breakfast Bill created a glamour on Harry, who now looked like Bill's youngest brother Ronald.

"No one will know it's you, Harry, and it wouldn't look out of place for me to be out on the alley with one of my siblings. You can choose a few clothes of your own, the rest we'll get for you later. Then we'll return here."

The plan suited Harry as any other would have that didn't involve his relatives. He happily joined Bill after breakfast and the two left through the floo. Alastor was the next who left. He copied the vial with Lily's memory and took it out to his boss. Remus left to contact Aberforth.

 **Ministry of Magic, August 14, 1985**

Alastor arrived at the Ministry and went to Madam Bones' office. He was let in and wished her a good morning.

"Good morning, Alastor. Do you bring the memory you mentioned?"

"Yes, it's here in this vial. It's a copy, so you can keep it."

Bones stood up and went to get the Solicitor's Pensieve from her cupboard. She placed it on her desk and invited Alastor to pour the contents of his vial into the basin. They watched it together and were both extremely angry when it had run its course.

"Alastor, I had the files on Black brought to me again. I remember that he was taken into custody, but then I was allowed to go on vacation right after You-Know-Who fell. I am not aware at what happened in terms of proper procedure and wanted to find out. There's hardly anything in that file, only Dumbledore's testimony that he was the Potters' Secret Keeper, a few more or less bogus sounding testimonies from the Muggle witnesses, Black's wand, a measly report on the arrest and the sentence. The report on the arrest contains about two paragraphs and has the worst spelling and grammar I've ever read from someone in the DMLE. I've interviewed Crouch last night and what he told me about the case had the hair on my neck stand up. Here's the proof that someone around the Potters wanted their deaths, and it doesn't look like that someone was Sirius Black. Crouch didn't want to say much, only that Dumbledore had put up no opposition at all when he suggested that they might be able to sentence Black without a trial. Crouch still believes him guilty by the way. And he's never had the wand checked either!"

"That's strange. I have never heard of another case that wasn't tried."

"I haven't either. But I have quietly ordered Kingsley and Gawain to go and get Black from Azkaban for questioning. If nothing else he deserves that at least. A few drops of Veritaserum and we'll know a good deal more, I'm sure. I don't want to risk it that someone eliminates Black before I had the opportunity to talk to him, and since I've not covered my steps specifically someone might take this to either Fudge or Dumbledore. Both are involved in the case, and both would have motives to conceal their tracks in this. Especially Fudge would have no conniptions to have Black killed silently if he sees reason to fear for his position. And this…"

She pointed at the file and continued:

"…this will cost Fudge and Crouch their jobs. If we're lucky, we can even get Dumbledore."

Alastor's healthy eye lit up.

"Who will conduct the questioning?"

"I'll take over myself. You are allowed to watch. You're now too involved in the case. I'm still neutral enough to be in a position to proceed with the questioning. All relevant questions will be asked. His wand will also be tested. That's never been done either. And all of this will be done in front of witnesses."

"Excellent."

"I expect Black to have arrived at the Ministry in a few minutes only. Would you care to join me in the cafeteria for a tea?"

"I'll join you, but you can be sure I won't have any of their poison there..."

Amelia laughed, got up and locked the Pensieve away, before she led Alastor out of her office. Kingsley's Patronus message reached her in the canteen. She quietly got up and banished her tray, then she left with Alastor, just as she would have done normally. Together they left the building and relocated themselves to the Ministry holding facility, where Shacklebolt and Robards had sat Sirius Black in an interrogation cell. Robards reported:

"The prisoner has been nothing but perfectly cooperative, Amelia, he's followed every order and has willingly accepted to be questioned under Veritaserum. We have already tested him, but there's none of the two known counter potions and curses against the truth serum inside of him."

"Excellent."

The four entered the room, where Sirius sat at the table, looking up expectantly at them.

"Can anyone tell me why it took four years for you people to finally ask me a question or two?" he asked.

"Because there was some very successful hush-hush going on here?" Amelia shot back, using a bantering tone rather than an annoyed one.

"How else could it be when Dumbledore wants something..." Sirius grumbled.

"We're onto him, Black. Just probably not enough yet to tear him down completely. - Gawain, here's the potion, would you kindly administer it?"

Alastor took over and used his wand to record the session:

"Case Sirius Black, questioning taking place August 14, 1985, it's 10.15 hours British Summer Time. Investigation is led by Madam Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE, as witnesses function Gawain Robards and Kingsley Shacklebolt, both Aurors, the minutes are recorded by Alastor Moody. Defendant was tested negative for counter agents on Veritaserum. Auror Robards has administered three drops of Veritaserum. Kindly proceed with the questioning."

Once the potion took Sirius' ability to lie, Amelia started the questioning:

"Only elaborate on a question when I ask you to, prisoner Black, thank you. What is your name and birth date?"

"Sirius Orion Black, October 18, 1959."

"Who were your best friends at school?"

"James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew."

"Have you become a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Have you ever spied for the Death Eaters?"

"No."

"Have you become a spy for Lord Voldemort?"

"No."

"Have you been made the Secret Keeper for James and Lily Potter?"

"No."

"For their son?"

"No."

"Do you know who their Secret Keeper was?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

"How do you know that? Elaborate, please."

"Pettigrew was our choice for the Secret Keeper, but we told everyone that I was the Secret Keeper. I was meant to be the decoy to protect Peter."

"After the Potters' deaths, did you flee from Peter Pettigrew?"

"No."

"But you met up with him?"

"I had to look for him. It was him who betrayed the Potters, I wanted revenge! I needed to avenge them. I followed him until I found him."

"You followed him?"

"Wasn't easy to catch up with him. He knew I was after him for having my family killed! But the little rat got the better of me."

"So, you followed him. What happened when you found him?"

"He was prepared, the snivelling traitor. He had his wand ready behind his back, screamed that I had betrayed James and Lily, cut off a finger and blew up the street. Then he transformed and vanished down the sewerage."

It was eerie to listen to Black's monotonous voice, but at the last bit everyone in the room listened up. Amelia immediately pounced on it.

"Transformed?"

"Yes, transformed into the snivelling rat that he is."

"He transformed into a rat? Do you mean to tell me that Peter Pettigrew is an Animagus?"

"Yes."

Amelia sat back down.

"Mr. Black, are you an Animagus?"

"Yes."

"What is your form?"

"Black dog. Big one."

"Why did you become an Animagus?"

"Help my friend. He's a werewolf, you know. We wanted to help him."

Alastor gave Amelia a wink. She nodded and let the subject drop.

"Back to Pettigrew. Did you kill him?"

"No."

"Do you believe he is still alive?"

"Yes."

"Great. If he hides away in this Animagus form he's going to be easy to find. That will only represent the literal needle in the haystack," she murmured.

"If I may..." Black started.

"Go ahead."

"Knowing him he might have looked for some place to stay. Always liked his comforts, did Peter, and to hide behind people who are stronger than him..." Black mumbled.

Bones looked up.

"As a pet perhaps? Pose in some family, preferably a wizard family..." she mused.

"Could be... he always looked for others to protect him," Black said.

Bones knew that Moody had known Black well before the Potters' deaths, and Alastor nodded in confirmation.

"I think a discreet search through magical pets is called for. Mind you, we get the truth from you now, but it would definitely be most helpful if we could find Pettigrew."

They gave Sirius a potion to counter the Veritaserum and took him back to a cell, but a considerably more comfortable one. Bones said:

"I'm sorry that it's still a cell, Sirius, but we need to clear you fully before we can actually let you out of custody. Give me at most a week or two and we'll have that done. This here is a highly protected place, and I'm its Secret Keeper. I'm afraid that someone was out for your life as much as James and Lily's."

"Dumbledore is the only one that comes to mind. He wanted the Potters out of their manor, which would have been by far safer than this cottage there in Godric's Hollow. If the security there would have been breached at all, they would have had enough opportunities to get out than in the tiny house where there was only one entrance."

"That's why we have to keep you safe. Is there anyone you want us to contact and inform? Anyone you would trust enough?"

"Only Remus. Remus Lupin..."

"Alastor can tell him. They're already in with each other as far as I know. Something to do with little Harry. And the reason why I'm not outraged that you suspect Dumbledore. I do so, too, after what I've learned about the little boy. Dumbledore had him spirited away at his Muggle relatives. Who seem to have mistreated the boy for the most part."

"Lily's second will! Did they open it?" Sirius asked.

"How do you know about that?"

"James and Lily - they told me that they had made a second will and Lily even said that she deposited a vocal record, which would help finding out the truth... and that the will would only become active on her younger sister's 18th birthday."

Amelia was floored. That Sirius knew of this was proof that the Potters trusted him to the end.

"Did you hear the contents?"

"Not of the recorded version, just what she told me would be in there. Both thought I was extremely vulnerable because we didn't tell anyone of the switch in Secret Keepers except Dumbledore."

"He claimed that you were the Secret Keeper in the first place, which led to the sentence without a trial. But that also means that you have never been 'officially' sentenced through a court verdict. In other words this is now protection detail for you instead of custody, because your life is still in danger, Sirius. Alastor is involved with Lily's younger sister, who has custody of Harry now, and he, Remus and young Bill Weasley are kind of their protection detail. I'll give you Kingsley and Gawain."

"Has Remus ever taken up as the curator at Potter Manor? That was what James wanted..."

"He has. Only just now as it seems. Miss Evans and he had been obliviated and knew very little about many things they should have known. They were called in to Gringotts to hear the second will and that's where young Bill Weasley comes in - he is a brilliant young curse breaker at Gringotts and had been called in to free their brains."

"Dumbledore?"

"They do think so. In any case it was also mentioned that the original will had been completely sealed and never executed. Which made it so much easier to enforce the second will as per their instructions when Dumbledore least suspected anything like that to happen. He was quite shocked. He's still searching for means to get his hands on Harry. If he'd know you have been brought out of Azkaban he'd be onto you very quickly, of that I'm sure."

After that Amelia ordered that Sirius be brought to a safe house where he stayed behind, thinking about the day he just passed. He began to hope again. Maybe he'd be finally free soon. He remembered Amelia from her Auror days, she'd already been one for about ten years when he had started his own training. He knew if there was one person he could fully trust, it was her.

 **Hog's Head Inn, Hogsmeade, August 14, 1985**

Remus arrived at the rundown bar in the early afternoon. This was a very quiet time in the dirty old tavern and Remus could be sure he would find time to talk to the old barkeep. He entered into the dingy taproom, looking around. Not one client was there, only Aberforth, who puttered around with a dirty old rag. For some reason the surfaces and glasses were always spotless, even with the dirty rag coming near them. Remus sat down at the bar and said:

"Hello, Aberforth..."

Aberforth turned to him and only a tiny flash in his eyes would have given away that he recognised the young man.

"See here! Haven't seen you around in a long time, Remus."

"No, I can't say I've been to Hogsmeade often in the past few years. Too far away from my sunny Cornwall home. How are you?"

"Just fine. What brought you here then? My dear brother?"

"Nope. Your 'dear' brother can go hang himself if it's up to me..." Remus replied.

"What! You've always been his prized pupil!"

"That may be, but that was before I knew what he did with my head, Aberforth. I'm here to speak to you."

"'Bout what?"

"Has to do with what your 'dear' brother is up to regarding Voldemort."

"Last I heard Voldemort was gone..."

"His spirit's still around and you know that as well as he does, old goat. Strange thing, but he really isn't completely dead. We've found out a lot of stuff, but I won't talk about it here. We're currently holing up in Potter Manor, which is here. We'd like you to join us..."

Remus showed the slip with the address to the old barkeeper. The slightest nod told Remus the old man had seen and memorised it.

"Meeting should take place tomorrow morning, so you can come in, too. Is nine o'clock okay with you?"

"Should be, Remus."

"Good. I have one more person to see now."

Remus left Hogsmeade and appeared on the country lane in front of a lovely old house on the outskirts of a Scottish village. The house was one of the first on the grounds of a big estate belonging to the ancestral home of the McGonagall family. Minerva had long ago left the manor to her oldest son and his family, because she preferred to pass her summers away from Hogwarts in her cosy little house closer to the village. Remus smiled and admired the blooming garden, where all sorts of flowers filled the grounds and many different vines covered the walls of the house. He knocked on the door and waited.

A few minutes later Minerva McGonagall opened the door herself. Wearing scarlet robes and having her long black hair in a loose pony tail over her shoulders made her look a few decades younger than she actually was.

"Remus Lupin! That's a nice surprise! Do come through, I was just waiting to have some fresh tea brought out to the terrace on the other side of the house! I'm sure a cuppa wouldn't be amiss for you, would it?"

"Hello, Professor! Thank you, I wouldn't turn down tea at any time."

"Thought so. Come through and tell me what brings you here."

While they passed the house, Minerva gave her house-elf the order to add a cup and some biscuits to the tea for Remus and led him out to a terrace, where she offered him a seat. She picked the book up that she had simply dropped on the table, put the bookmark in and closed it properly.

"How have you been, Remus? I haven't had the pleasure of seeing you in the past four years. But then it seems like the Order just scattered into the four winds right after You-Know-Who fell..."

"I could have been better, but I made it through so far, Professor."

"We're not at Hogwarts and you're not my student anymore, Remus, please call me Minerva now. What are you doing now?"

"I've started a job yesterday that I should have started at least four years ago, Minerva. I am now the curator of the Potter family and have moved to their manor just yesterday."

"No! Really? Who has hired you then? There is no one left in that family apart from little Harry, is there?"

"Minerva, do you remember Iris Evans?

"Yes, she has just recently left Hogwarts and she was a Gryffindor."

"Do you remember Lily Evans' little sister?"

"Lily only had an older sister, Remus, what was her name? That of a flower, too, but not Rose or something like that - Oh, now I remember, Petunia! You should know that!"

"Oh, I do know Petunia very well, Minerva. But just the day before yesterday I would have given the same reply you are giving me now. Iris Evans is the youngest of the Evans sisters, but she didn't remember she had any sister until two days ago. Two days ago she became an adult in both the magical and the Muggle world and two days ago she was summoned to Gringotts, where she learned that someone had played with her head when she was fourteen, right after her sister was killed. The Goblins at Gringotts had a will ready for her and myself to read and execute, a will that was established two days after the official will of James and Lily Potter and thus voided the first one."

"Did they have a will at all?"

"Yes, Minerva, they did. We all had one, don't you remember? It was consensus that all of us should protect our possessions and our last wishes."

"Right. I do remember that. Actually I find that my memories of that time are already fading..."

"They aren't fading, Minerva, they have been stolen from you. Simply stolen. Someone has altered your memory and altered it in a very bad way."

"But who would have done something like that? Who would be so cruel as to..."

"If I told you now you wouldn't be ready to believe me, Minerva. I have been memory charmed as well, and Iris, the poor child didn't even remember her big sister who had become her guardian, she was completely floored when she learned the truth the day before yesterday. Bill Weasley has restored our original memories and what we have found out since then is a conspiracy of the worst sort. Would you allow for Bill to bring back your memories as well, Minerva?"

The professor stared at Remus with something very untypical for her: unseeing eyes. Minerva's black eyes were glazed over and she almost resisted.

"My memories, Remus? They're really not complete?"

Remus shook his head.

"No, they're really not, Minerva. They have probably been altered, too, so you wouldn't notice at once."

"Then yes, I will allow Mr. Weasley to restore my memory. I'm stumped for words, Remus!"

"So was I, Minerva, believe me! Could I ask you a favour? Could you contact Filius Flitwick and give him this slip as well? We'd like to invite him to tomorrow's meeting as well if he could make it. I would do it myself, but Dumbledore knows that I'm in league with Iris, so he'd possibly find out I had contacted the professor."

"No need to explain and ask, Remus, I'll speak to Filius tonight."

Remus gave her a quick account of what had happened and invited her to visit Potter Manor on the following day. He gave her all that she needed to be allowed through the wards. He wasn't afraid of any manipulation by Dumbledore, the old man would only be able to get the information, but it wouldn't serve him a thing, because not only had Remus raised the Fidelius, he had combined it cleverly with the old family wards, which in combination protected the secret even more than through the simple knowledge. At the least until Harry would reach the age to attend Hogwarts this ward would remain on the Potter properties.

 **Potter Manor, August 14, 1985**

Shortly before noon, Poppy Pomfrey presented herself at the Manor. She was warmly greeted by Remus, who had always liked her since she had been responsible for his treatment after the full moons. He welcomed her inside and asked:

"Hello, Poppy, welcome to Harry's home!"

"Hello, Remus! Dad's visit yesterday and what he had to tell me floored me! May I see the little one?"

"You may, Poppy, come on in!"

Remus led the healer to the sunroom, where Iris played with Harry. Iris got up and greeted the school healer as well.

"Hello, Madam Pomfrey, it's nice to see you!"

"Good morning, Miss Evans."

"Harry, this is Madam Pomfrey. She's a healer, a magical doctor, and she'd like to have a good look at you. It is important for us to establish your health and how you have been in the past four years at the Dursleys'."

"Hello," Harry said shyly.

He got up from the floor and held out his little hand, which Poppy took and held it in hers for a moment.

"Hello, little Harry! You look remarkably like your Daddy and your Mummy. What a lovely boy you are. May I have a good look at you to find out if you are well inside, too?"

"Does it hurt?" he asked, anxiously.

"No, it won't hurt at all, in fact I don't even need to touch you for it. I will cast a few spells though, and you won't feel them at all."

"Okay then," Harry agreed immediately.

"Excellent. Would you please sit down on this lounge chair?"

Harry climbed up on the chair and sat stiffly and upright, but Poppy asked him to lean back and relax. She then cast every diagnostic spell she knew to get a full record of his health and had all the results copied to a roll of parchment through a dictation quill. All internal organs showed up as intact and well. But there was no such nice result from the scans of Harry's skeleton. Numerous old injuries were listed as 'healed hairline fracture, mostly healed break, scarcely healed twist, healed sprain' and other versions. It seemed that there were no bones in Harry's arms and legs and a few beyond that like ribs, shoulders or even his pelvis that had not been broken at some point. Poppy gasped and added a surface scan that would check Harry up for scars. There were a few ugly ones, a scar from scalding hot water that had been poured over his side at some point, remainders of lacerations and scars from injuries from other sources. There were a few of the normal suspects, which would be expected in a small child, as children tended to skin their knees occasionally, or even get the odd cut here and there, but what the quill recorded went far beyond these normal occurrences. The two final scans concerned the body fluids, which showed up completely normal and the muscles, which came up mostly fine, but had the odd fractured structure as well, where an injury had cut into them. Poppy lowered her wand after a few minutes and sat down opposite Harry, to explain what she had found to her patient and his guardian.

"First of all, Harry, you are an amazing little one! You have magically healed so much around your body that your core has already gained quite the impressive size and stability. You have certainly profited from your very gifted parents. Believe me when I tell you that both of them possessed a considerable intellect and both of them liked to use that intellect. They were also both what we call powerful, meaning that their magical core gave them a high basis of natural raw magical power. Once this is trained it means that a person with such an extended and stable core can use more of their strength than a person with less power and has much better focus. It means that this person will not tire as quickly as another, magically and physically. And you have inherited the full potential from both of your parents. All of your inner organs are healthy. They should grow just fine. That concludes the good part of the examination.

"Now on to the not so good part. You have had bones broken in the past. It has been your magic that has healed them, because I could not detect any Muggle treatments on your body at all. Have you ever seen a doctor?"

Harry shook his head.

"No, madam. Aunt Petunia said, I don't need a doctor because I'm a freak."

"That's what I thought. All the healing your magic has done for you helped making your core even larger and it helped to stabilise it earlier than other children. I have seen it in other abused children before. It is a blessing, but it also makes healing a bit more difficult. Here's what I found as well: you will need glasses. I suppose you do have a predisposition for that as your father was quite myopic as well. A few of your ancestors suffered from the same problem. It means you can't see very far before things appear blurred and it will be easily corrected by proper glasses. I'll give your auntie Iris the prescription for the glasses. Your bones may have been broken, but they're all healed as well. Since you're still growing they will grow out what's been left over quite soon. Just as long as you get good food now you won't have a lasting problem with them. Any more of it might have been very detrimental to your health though.

"There is one bad thing though, but I suspect that you have had that since the night you got it and it revolves around that scar on your forehead. Miss Evans, this will need to be looked over by specialists, possibly even Gringotts healers, who know about these things much better than we common healers do. This is very serious, it shows up simply as a black hole in the scan. This usually means a residue from a curse. Harry, you have been hit with the blackest of all curses and you have survived, which means it has left something behind. The Goblins specialise in breaking up such residues."

While Poppy examined Harry, Remus wasn't at the Manor. He had been shown the safe house where Sirius had been placed and was able to speak to his friend, before he went to see Aberforth. The two had silently hugged each other and put their heads together, each begging the other for forgiveness.

"Seems like we have now two enemies to overcome, Siri," said Remus quietly.

"Three!" Amelia butted in from the side. "You can add the Minister, who loses more than just a little face here. But he'll be easiest to cast aside. Out of his office he won't have much power. He's only trying to consolidate a power base, since he's been appointed only recently, but he doesn't really have one yet. He usually listens to either Dumbledore or the one who pays most. But we won't need money to convince the Wizengamot of his wrongdoing. I have already planted the case as a 'review case' in the 'Varia' section of the next meeting and there won't be anyone who can vote other than 'not guilty', or they'll be lynched by the mob! People will be most upset to hear what happened to their little saviour and his surrounding. The press, and not only the domestic press, but the international as well will be jumping on the story!"

"Thanks, Amelia, can't wait to see that," said Sirius.

"And you'll have front seat, too, Sirius. Who's your lawyer, I'd like to contact them on your behalf?"

"Lynton, Quigley and Tonks. Ask for Frederic Lynton and have him also keep Ted Tonks informed. Normally I'd prefer Ted, but in this instance I'll be better off with Frederic, he's from very old pureblood stock and will be more respected by the Wizengamot. Ted will be an excellent assistant to him, but we're also related through Andromeda, Ted's wife, so Lynton is politically the better choice in this instance."

"I know them both. I'll contact Ric right away. You two take your time and Remus is welcome to return at any time. Just check for tracking charms before and after, okay?"

"Will do, Amelia."

"Two weeks tops, Sirius, then you'll be free. The Wizengamot meeting I envisage for the case is on the 29th, which means that Dumbledore will most probably be preoccupied with Hogwarts stuff and he'll be completely surprised or not even there himself."

"I think he's onto us at least close, Amelia, he's tried to gain entrance at Potter Manor just minutes after I raised the new Fidelius and the old Potter wards."

Remus wasn't too wrong. Dumbledore was still looking for a way to get into that house, which he cursed in the meantime. Because now that there was a Fidelius on it in addition to the family wards he could not even get close enough anymore to try and dissect the wards. He had returned twice to the site where he thought the Potter home to be, but had either run into a completely empty space or run into a ward of unknown kind - at least to him. Blast Remus Lupin, he thought, and swore at himself for not binding the man to him exclusively.

Dumbledore was in a sour mood. He had run afoul with the Goblins, with the Ministry, he was not even successful in finding his old friend Alastor Moody, who would have been excellent in taking these wards down and when he had dared to show up at the Hogshead Inn he'd been blasted out of the door by his brother who was not pleased to see him as usual, even less so as it seemed.

Even Minerva wasn't at home!

Where was the blasted boy? He needed to go back to the Dursleys urgently! Two more days would be enough to make it impossible to reset the wards he had set up.

 **Ministry of Magic, August 29, 1985**

Because he was so busy finding little Harry Potter the old headmaster completely missed to find out what went on at the Ministry. He even missed the standard invite to the next Wizengamot session and was thus absent when the meeting, presided over by Augusta Longbottom as his regular deputy, reached its final point, the 'Varia' section.

"We have three items on the Varia. First is the motion of the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister to forbid werewolves to seek paid work and to forbid anyone offering paid work to a werewolf. Is there any interest in a discussion of this new law?"

Amelia certainly had more than one comment. She got up and asked for the right to speak.

"Granted, Lady Bones. Please submit your comments."

"Gladly. It is an utterly dangerous and stupid idea. I'm sorry to be so inordinately blunt, but this law would mean that a dangerous kind of magical creatures would be incapable of gaining their own lives and they would then regularly be out on the full moon nights, because they would probably not be able to afford housing or even basic needs like food and clothing let alone security for their dangerous alter persona. Where would they spend their full moons? Exactly - outside. Can the Senior Undersecretary confirm that she has included the need for proper sheltering of the werewolves during full moons or does she simply wish to cast them out to allow the rest of the population to kill them at their leisure? I suspect the latter and I wish to have the Senior Undersecretary in the stand to be questioned about this law."

"Any seconds for that request?" Augusta asked and received not one but six votes for the request.

"Request is granted. Madam Umbridge, you are the champion for this law and you have been asked to answer questions regarding it. Please take a seat at the stand here. Lady Bones, do you require the use of a truth serum to assure that we hear the proper motivation behind the law?"

"I was going to appeal for the use of Veritaserum, Lady Longbottom, or an oath on life and magic."

"Any seconds?"

The same six votes as before would have allowed for questioning under truth serum. Umbridge fumed, but got up from her seat and bellowed:

"I withdraw the motion."

"Motion has been withdrawn, the current status for werewolves remains the same," Lady Longbottom confirmed with a good portion of glee and a content smile in Remus' direction.

"The next point is the appointment of Mr. Conrad Sears to the post of second secretary to the head of the Financial Department. Votes for the appointment?"

A majority of the members voted for the nomination. The last point was announced:

"And finally we have the last point, which runs under 'reviewed case'. I don't have more details than that, so I would like to pass the word to the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones."

Amelia got up and presented her case.

"I would like to draw your memories back to the first few days after the end of the war. Lord James and Lady Lily Potter were dead, their little son had survived, which made him the new Lord Potter. Albus Dumbledore, in his function as the head of this esteemed body, almost immediately assured us that the infant had been given into custody with his closest living relatives as is custom when there is no will. What he omitted to tell us was that there was, in fact, a valid will, established by Lord and Lady Potter on the date of the 22nd October 1981. Albus Dumbledore had simply chosen not to execute this will because it contained facts he did not like to become public. Facts like the information about the Potters' Secret Keeper, who, as it has come to light in the past two weeks, was by no means the accursed Sirius Black, but the acclaimed Peter Pettigrew."

There was uproar, within the Wizengamot as much as within the audience on the balcony. Amelia waited for the noise to come down and went on.

"We have proof of that. Two days after the Potters had established their will, of which Albus Dumbledore was one of the witnessing signatories, they wrote a new will, uninfluenced by the headmaster and Lady Potter left her hiding place to bring it to Gringotts in person, where it was also witnessed by two different persons. She deposited it together with a Pensieve statement, which we shall show you in just a moment, because it will be very revealing."

Gawain Robards entered and brought in the large court Pensieve. Lady Longbottom gave him the order to empty the vial with the memory inside and to start the memory. Lily Potter rose out of the Pensieve and repeated her missive, this time for all in the courtroom to hear:

"I'm sorry, Iris, if you see this then it means I'm gone. Can't bloomin' say dead, because that just simply hurts too much. We've just gone into hiding, but the moment that Peter sealed the spell by accepting to be our Secret Keeper, both James and I had a bad feeling about it. You know, in the past few days we've discussed the situation and discussed it over and over again. Sirius is completely out of it, he so wants to be our Secret Keeper, but we're all aware of what an obvious choice he'd be…"

The rapt silence with which every person in the room listened to Lily's explanation was deafening. The storm of indignation when the memory faded out was even more deafening, but this time by its noise. Amelia stood up again and held up the second will.

"We do have an uncertified copy of the first will, but this is the valid will of Lord and Lady Potter, executed upon their wish on the twelfth day of August of this current year, which represents the 18th birthday of Lady Potter's younger sister Iris Evans, which also marked her entry into adulthood in the Muggle world. The execution of this will has since then brought forth many facts that were contradictory to the things we held true until then. It mainly led to the review of the case against the man who obviously was not the traitor everyone thought he was, Sirius Black. I have reviewed the files to his case and not only have I found out that no proper procedure was followed whatsoever in the course of his arrest and investigation of the case, he had not even been properly tried and sentenced. As we stand this man has been incarcerated, but not sentenced by a court ruling. We do not have the right at all to even hold him in our holding cells down in the Ministry! No one even asked him a single question. Since when do we send people to a life long stay at Azkaban without a trial, without giving them a chance to even speak up for themselves?"

More outrage, but obviously the image of Sirius Black had been blackened to a point that not many were even willing to hear him out. Amelia simply declared:

"Sirius Black has not been allowed to defend himself. We have taken away years of the life of a man who we cannot simply persecute and believe to be guilty without proof. This will be the first public questioning of the defendant Sirius Black."

The doors to the courtroom opened and two Aurors brought in Sirius, unrestrained and unresisting. He quietly sat down on the chair in front of the judge and smiled at Lady Longbottom.

Lady Longbottom, who was as surprised as everyone else, asked Amelia:

"Has the defendant been questioned by the Aurors?"

"Yes, Madam."

"Is the outcome of this questioning in his favour?"

"It is, Madam. That is why he is not restrained at present. In his file we also found his wand…"

Madam Bones held up Sirius' old wand.

"…but no mentioning whether the wand had been tested in the investigation. We therefore part from the idea that it has been untouched since the defendant's arrest. I wish to test the wand in front of this Wizengamot assembly."

"Go ahead, Madam Bones."

Amelia strode to the middle of the room and spoke:

"It is a rare case where the attorney for the prosecution serves as a defender of the defendant at the same time. But in this particular case I, as the responsible member of the government, take the steps to do so to correct an error of justice that couldn't possibly be worse. Members of the Wizengamot, please be aware that we have in front of us a man who has never been tried and sentenced by an ordinary court. That means that we have no right to even hold him in this room. We have the duty to give him the trial that allows him to give us his side and we then have to **prove** his position is not the truth! In dubio pro reo also goes for the wizarding world, and it is us who have to prove that Sirius Black is guilty of the crimes we believe him to have committed, not the other way round! I ask you to not let yourself be guided by preconceived facts that may not be facts at all.

"That said I think I have here the first evidence that this wand has not cast the curses needed to blow up the street in 1981. We have therefore asked our resident wand expert, Mr. Ollivander, to come and test this wand for us."

Ollivander stepped up and explained:

"I remember every wand I ever sold. Mr. Black's wand was white oak, and its core was the single hair of a Unicorn. I have the choice of several brother wands, which can be used to put Mr. Black's wand to the test. To do so we have asked two Aurors to use this wand here, which remains unsold at my shop, and Mr. Black's wand here."

Amelia had two Aurors already called in for the task. They stepped up and took one of the wands each, waiting for Mr. Ollivander to instruct them what to do with the wands.

"Mrs Brown, you have the neutral wand. Mr. Shacklebolt, you have Mr. Black's wand. May I ask you to cast mildly aggressive spells against each other using these wands? Expelliarmus will do nicely."

The two Aurors placed themselves at some distance and cast the spells. Instead of hitting their opposites these spells met in the middle and immediately the two were lifted in the air, cores of light beams started to go around them and encase the two. Ollivander stared as much as the others, because even though he knew what this spell did – he had never actually seen it. He told the two:

"Can you see the pearls of light on the connecting beam? Would you, Mr. Shacklebolt, allow all the beams to be pushed into the wand you hold? It will then start to regurgitate all spells that were cast with it."

"Will do."

"Mrs Brown, you will find no resistance now, simply push those beads over until they all vanished in Mr. Black's wand."

The following show was impressive – the echoes of hundreds of spells that came out of Sirius' wand showed nothing worse than stunners. Sirius had used some blasting hexes, but they all took place long before that first day of November 1981.

Once they could all expect that only spells allowed at Hogwarts came out of the wand, Amelia told Mrs Brown to cut the connection. Both Aurors came back down to earth. Kingsley handed Sirius' wand back to Amelia.

"This was the wand that supposedly killed a dozen Muggles and Peter Pettigrew. Does anyone in here believe that this would have been possible?"

No one objected. Madam Longbottom turned towards the members of the Wizengamot:

"Wizengamot members, as we could see we have very strong evidence that the defendant has not committed the crime. Will a summary of the result of the questioning be enough for you to vote on the defendant's case?"

A small majority still wanted a repetition of the questioning. Amelia waited until a court healer had checked for any antidotes in Sirius' system before the dose was applied by the same healer.

The questioning then took place in a similar manner as it already had and after that there were barely two Wizengamot members who didn't see that not acquitting Sirius Black was political suicide. One of them was Fudge, the other was his Senior Undersecretary who both tried to shoot down Amelia Bones' case just as she had shot down theirs. Unfortunately Fudge really was intent on the political suicide - he not only found himself voted out of his position, but voted out together with his despicable Undersecretary. This meant that the Ministry was without an active Minister. As per standard protocol the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was the Minister's Deputy and as such Amelia Bones took temporary reins.

Sirius stood up, bowed to the Wizengamot and the people in the gallery and smiled.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for finally lending an ear to my plight. We now have the mandate to examine what led to this scandalous incarceration four years ago. From my own, admittedly limited point of view I was caught on the scene and awoke in Azkaban, hearing nothing for several days. I can't really say how many days, because I quickly lost all sense of time. But the first time a human showed up they simply told me the verdict of lifelong and that was that. My basic rights had been denied to me: I was not asked to testify. I was not allowed to contact my lawyers. I was never even heard when I asked to see my lawyers. All I experienced there was silence. There are no words to express my gratitude to James and Lily, who were my closest remaining family, for their foresight to process a second will, which replaced their original one. I certainly never suspected foul play by the head of the Wizengamot! Why he did what he did, to me and as I hear to my godson as well needs to be investigated. I'm ready to invest not a small amount of Galleons to actually pay an army of lawyers and investigators until we know it all: the motives, the reasons, the methods. Again, thank you all!"

Sirius threw a quick glance up to the gallery where he spotted Alastor and Remus, who represented their small group and who were already up and moving to the stairs to meet him.

The press awaited him. He gave a few short statements and was then able to escape with Remus and Alastor's help. They took him to the Manor where the rest of the group sat and awaited them with a big feast ready to start.

Before any of that could take place Sirius reacquainted himself with Harry. He had missed four years of his beloved godson's life, but after a few minutes the two already warmed up with each other. Harry was shy, but he remembered the voice and the laughter of his godfather and thawed considerably.

 **Hogwarts, August 30, 1985**

Dumbledore was near desperation. He returned to Hogwarts to think about the last few days' worth of unsuccessful search when his eyes fell upon the letter that invited him to the Wizengamot session. He looked at the calendar and noticed it was already a day later.

"Oh well, it's the middle of summer and nothing of importance ever happens in summer..." he thought.

But the next thing that found its way into his conscious was the morning's Daily Prophet and its headline:

"Sirius Black tried and acquitted!" it seemed to shout at him personally.

Now he swore! As he screamed out his total frustration he hardly noticed an angry cry from his Phoenix, who vanished in a flash of fire, never to return.

Dumbledore was so engrossed in his anger all of his thoughts circled around the fact that Sirius Black was free. And what would that blasted young man do first? Dumbledore was sure that Black would go for Harry. And contrary to himself Black had definitely a legal right to claim for custody of the boy, after all he was the boy's Godfather.

He now read the article more closely and went back to screaming when he learned more about the second will the Potters had made. The information told him they had known that he was after their son and their estate. He never realised that it was now officially recorded that he had lied when he claimed that there was no will and that Sirius was the Secret Keeper. This fact being on the records meant that Amelia Bones had a valid reason to investigate the head of the Wizengamot.

Dumbledore didn't know this yet, but he was in quite a bit of trouble as the very same Amelia Bones was also temporary Minister now. He learned about that in a further article with a great headline, which also contained a picture of the beaten down Cornelius Fudge and a fuming Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge.

Umbridge had in fact created such a screaming scandal that she was taken out of the Chambers by two Aurors who had to subdue her with a silencing charm and a full body bind. Amelia personally put her under Veritaserum to ask a few questions regarding her knowledge of Fudge's probable corruptions. Amelia's instincts were intact. Moody and Robards questioned Umbridge thoroughly and not only got evidence and information about the channel through which bribes had started to flow the year before, but they also learned that Umbridge had done Fudge's dirty work in eliminating two possible candidates for the Ministry. They had all known that those two murders had taken place, but one of them they had never been allowed to even investigate and the other had been charged to an innocent person who seemed to still be sitting in Azkaban. Moody had the man brought back to the Ministry immediately and questioned under Veritaserum as well, while Umbridge was transferred straight to a cell in Azkaban.

It turned out that this prisoner from Azkaban was not entirely innocent. While he was questioned he admitted to being a low-level Death Eater who had committed several crimes, two or three murders and some robberies. Moody closed the protocol by remarking that the admission to the use of the Unforgivable Curses for at least ten times was enough to send the man back to his cell without further procedures.

"Am I glad that we didn't find another innocent prisoner?" he asked Robards laconically.

"Definitely. After this one I can't but wonder how we would feel if we were able to put the real monsters under Veritaserum. That Malfoy is so twisted I'd bet he has a few crimes to list."

"Dream on! If we do get a proper new Minister, maybe then Amelia can actually get a foot into these doors, but if they decide on another Fudge people like Malfoy will simply drop a few more Galleons. Not that it would hurt their coffers any," Moody lamented.

"I don't know - Sirius' case might alert enough people in the Wizengamot to start some weeding."

"We can only hope..."

There was enough evidence to charge both, Umbridge as the one to do the dirty jobs and Fudge as the instigator. Despite Dumbledore's attempt to keep his puppet Amelia brought the now ex-Minister to trial. She took the role of the prosecuting attorney and proposed Adrian Greengrass from the Wizengamot as the judge. Fudge had been caught trying to escape out of Britain, but the Aurors brought him back and so he was filled to the hilt with Veritaserum. He admitted to taking bribes from several prominent Wizengamot members and some private people like Lucius Malfoy. The sum of money he had gathered in just three years of office made some people gasp. When questioned to Sirius Black's arrest he admitted to having used the Imperius curse.

"That alone will be enough for a sentence for life at Azkaban!" exclaimed Greengrass, shocked.

Amelia agreed. The use of any of the Unforgivable curses only once was already enough for life in Azkaban, so she thought it very appropriate.

Fudge paled. He had reason to, because he was found guilty by a majority in the Wizengamot and the verdict was, as proposed by the prosecution, a sentence to life in Azkaban. At Dumbledore's protest Amelia stood up and asked:

"Before this august body I ask thee, Albus Dumbledore: what does the law code state for the proven use of Unforgivable Curses? It says here, and I quote: any use of one of the Unforgivable Curses (Imperius, Cruciatus, Avada Kedavra) shall be punished by a sentence of life in Azkaban or death at the hands of the Dementors. Do you agree that this is a valid paragraph in our law code?"

"Yes, but we need to be human..."

"No but, Dumbledore. It is time that we start trying the true culprits not only the small puppets used for the brawn. The 'real' culprits. Those who have committed crimes against our law code need to be brought to justice, starting at the top. I rest my case."

There was spontaneous applause from the spectators' gallery above the courtroom. Amelia looked up and saw that next to the group around Sirius Black sat Arthur Weasley, who had brought his sons Charlie, Fred and George. All of them were clapping.

Dumbledore looked very sour and banged his gavel. The sight of Sirius, free and with the ones who held his pawn captive, made him extremely angry. He could not let anyone notice anything of that though, because it was his own fault he had missed that Wizengamot meeting, he was sure he could have done something to prevent it then. The old wizard gnawed his teeth. He was only allowed to be a simple member of the Wizengamot in this trial and of course they had promptly taken the opportunity to get rid of his puppet. He needed Fudge! Fudge allowed him to pull the strings behind his back as no Minister had ever done before. Now he would have to find another one he could install as the Minister...

But there was nothing doing. Fudge was swiftly sentenced to life in Azkaban and thus followed Umbridge who had been taken there straight after her verdict. Dumbledore looked at Amelia Bones and knew he had to get rid of her somehow.

Across the room on the gallery Lucius Malfoy looked on and was angry. The man he had bought in the past three years had just lost him at least half a million Galleons! And now he was caught and carted off to Azkaban! He would have to spend another half million for sure just to influence the making of the next Minister - the bloody fence-sitters in the Wizengamot cost him too much money. He wasn't even sure if he could spare as much as he needed to tamper with the vote and get the kind of Minister he needed. He hoped it would be someone who he could threaten into compliance rather than having to buy them.

But strangely his thoughts managed to be exactly the same as Dumbledore's when his glance fell on the head of the DMLE: 'Whoever will be the next Minister will have to help getting rid of her. If she gets any more legal power she'll become a real nuisance.'

No Minister could dismiss a department head on his own. Only a two thirds vote of the full Wizengamot chambers could dismiss a department head. It was one of those laws corrupt people like Malfoy had not been able to overthrow. It made large parts of the Ministry impervious to outside influence and helped the British magical world to cling to their legal code during the last war. The only direct influence the Minister had was a recommendation for the appointment of a department head. Traditionally the Wizengamot would follow up on the nomination by the Minister.

The verdict stood. The Ministry needed a new leader. Dumbledore in his role of the Head of the Wizengamot nominated Amos Diggory; Amelia, as the temporary Minister, nominated Arthur Weasley. The Wizengamot following the tradition followed the suggestion of the Minister, even the temporary Minister, and appointed Arthur Weasley.

Dumbledore was surprised at Amelia's choice. She knew that the Weasley family strongly supported him. What Albus didn't know was that Bill had thoroughly thrashed his reputation with Arthur and at least gave Molly a lot to think about.

"The new Minister of Magic will be Arthur Weasley, subject to his acceptance of the appointment. Arthur, may I ask you to come down?"

Arthur was still shocked, looked around at his sons and the Black party next to them and Sirius urged him:

"Don't think Arthur! Go! Take it! I'll support you step for step! Together with Amelia we have a chance to make this world a lot better!"

That alerted his distant cousin and Arthur got up, mustering all the dignity he could with his fairly shabby robes, but he marched downstairs, head held high.

"Arthur Weasley, do you accept the nomination to the office of Minister of Magic?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, I do."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you the new Minister of Magic, Arthur Weasley!"

There was reserved applause, but Arthur never realised, he simply stood to swear his oath as the new Minister. Knowing the procedures he proclaimed:

"I shall need a few days to familiarise myself with the running affairs and start work. There will be a press conference after this session for a short statement and in a week for my first official comments on the current state of affairs."

While Arthur made his way to the press room he was inundated with congratulations from many sides. He might have been only the head of a tiny department, but he was generally well-liked throughout most of the Ministry. Many well-wishers told him how happy they were he would become Minister and were sure that things would go much better with him as administrator. One though, namely Lucius Malfoy, was fuming. He wouldn't underestimate Arthur Weasley and he knew that he wouldn't be able to threaten nor buy this man. Dumbledore on the other side was pleasantly surprised and thought it would be easy to influence the man he believed to be weak.

There were enough journalists in the room to be present after the meeting. Arthur, Dumbledore and Amelia Bones took up seats in the press room to give their statements. Dumbledore left the floor to Arthur.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, first of all please excuse my not so elegant attire. I did not come today expecting to be nominated for this office. But I do hope that it will be more important how I work than what I wear. At this point in time I am still floored about the nomination. I know that I can and will fill this office to the best of my abilities. I will need a few days to put together a team to see what needs to be done. Cornelius Fudge was a corrupt Minister. A few remarks to all those who are now tempted to do the same with me they did with Cornelius Fudge: I will not be corrupted. Anyone who thinks of coming after me with money offers or threats let this be my only warning to you that you will run against a wall - and a solid one at that. I look forward to working together with Madam Bones and the rest of the Department Heads as well as the Wizengamot. But I reiterate once more that I will react strongly to any attempts to bribe or threaten me. Knowing that I'm following in the office to a thoroughly corrupt man I shall see what can be done on the legal side to make corruption what it actually is – a destructive, criminal act that deserves respective punishment. That is all from my side. I am ready to receive your questions."

Sirius and Remus stood with Arthur's three boys and grinned. Sirius told the boys:

"Watch out for this father of yours! He was a great Auror, he'll be a fantastic Minister! We will do anything to help him create a better and much fairer magical world."

"I'm sure you will do, Sirius. Have him appoint you as Senior Undersecretary, you'll be great to keep Dad going, because sometime he needs that," said Charlie.

Fred and George didn't know very much about politics yet, being only seven, but they heard their parents and older brothers discuss many things about the Ministry in general that they were aware of the importance of their father's new job. Both were highly intelligent and had inquisitive, fun-loving minds. Already they were known as the family's most avid pranksters and when Sirius learned about that he encouraged them to learn anything they could and as much of it they could just to be creative for more elaborate pranks.

They were still newly acquainted, so Fred asked politely:

"Mr Black, is it true that Harry Potter now lives with you?"

"Did Bill tell you that?"

"Yes, but we aren't actually allowed to talk about it. Only because we know that you're Harry's godfather and you came with Mr. Lupin…"

"Yes, it is true. And he could do with some friends. Would you like to come and meet him?"

"We promised Bill that we would become his friends if he wants us to be. We really hated to hear that he was treated badly," said George.

By the time Arthur was done with the press conference and re-joined them the two little boys had already decided that Sirius Black was way cool. Remus told them that they would be welcome to visit and meet Harry. Arthur was happy and thought that the twins, even with all of their brashness would be the better companions for a boy who seemed to have suffered a lot than Ronald, because the twins possessed what Ronald lacked sorely: tact and compassion. Also on their plus sides were their openness, curiosity, an overabundance of intelligence and enthusiasm. Ron, though he was the same age as Harry, would not yet understand that the boy didn't have anything in common with the book character.

"Congratulations, Dad! You're going to be an amazing Minister! Great how you rebuffed any advances from the dark side before they even step up!" said Charlie.

Remus and Sirius followed suit:

"I agree, Arthur, congratulations. Charlie is right, I couldn't have found a better contrast to Fudge than you - apart from Amelia, but I think she prefers the law enforcement and legal side."

"That's why she nominated me. That was premeditated, but none of us thought I'd actually get it. So I really was floored."

"Did Mum know about that?" Charlie asked.

"Of course not! I'll be home informing her when I take you back. I'm free now, so we can go home. - Sirius, I'd like to make you an offer if you're interested: I would like you to come and take up the position of the Senior Undersecretary. It's an important intermediary between all department heads, the Minister and the Wizengamot, and you're able to give direct input into the creation of new laws or the replacement, amendment and deletion of old ones. But your most important part in my government will be your assistance in finding evidence to bring down the remaining Death Eaters. You were an Auror, I'm sure you'll do a good job at that."

The last part was said in such a whisper that only Sirius, Remus and Charlie were able to hear it. Charlie grinned.

"Good thinking, Dad!"

"Yes, Arthur, I think that is enough of an enticement to come and take the job. Should I come by your office on Monday to discuss this more privately?"

"Just the suggestion I wanted to hear, Sirius."

Arthur brought his boys home and allowed them to fall over their mother with the news.

"Mum! Mum! You won't believe what just happened!" Fred cried as they came through the Floo.

"What is it, Freddie?" she asked.

"Dad's been made the new Minister!" said Charlie, still very excited.

"No… you're having me on! That can't be…"

"Yes, I'm afraid it is true. I was asked before to step up, so when Amelia nominated me and the Wizengamot voted for me I accepted. There will be some changes in our lives, Molly. I'm afraid we'll have to move house, too."

"Well, what has to be, has to be. At least financially we'll be much better off!"

"That is certainly one of the more comfortable aspects, dear. I'm starting immediately and will probably be off at work a lot until I have my proper team and a good overview over the state of affairs. Three years of Fudge will probably have left chaos."

* * *

 **Chapter 3 - Harry Potter learns Happiness**

Harry was overwhelmed. He felt completely out of sorts, but he realised that it was in a good way. Deep inside he kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but every day that passed with people in the house being nice to him made him better.

His Auntie Iris had started uni and left whenever she needed to be at lectures. She and Cindy looked for another two students who would share the house in Bevendean where she would still be welcome to visit at any time.

Arabella meanwhile looked a lot after Harry, had him help her with her Kneazles and was generally happy to have the boy so close. She was old, but not too old, and he was a very kind and reserved child who didn't get on her nerves. That stayed the same until Harry and the Weasley twins were introduced. While Molly had tried to include Ron, Arthur had clearly stepped in and only allowed the twins, even though they were two years older than Harry.

"Ron doesn't understand the difference between Harry and the Boy-Who-Lived yet, Molly, but the twins do. They are mature enough to see HARRY, and not that dreadful hero character, which is most important to Harry. And in this relation only what's good for Harry counts, not what's good for our pampered youngest. Compared to Harry, our children have everything, even on the material side. It would be horrible for Harry to deal with someone who can't see beyond the book character. So it's the twins. If you wish for someone to watch the twins you could allow Percy along…"

Molly was happy with that so nine years old Percy was allowed to go with the twins. He didn't want to, but as soon as he saw the library at Potter Manor he wasn't so against it anymore. On the third visit he brought his pet along, but the moment they came out of the Floo the rat in the cage started to run around like crazy.

"Scabbers! What's wrong with you?" Percy asked.

Remus came into the entrance hall, where the three Weasley children had arrived and immediately knew what was wrong with the 'pet' – it had smelled where it was and remembered! Remus immediately stunned the rat.

"I'm really sorry, Percy, but your pet unfortunately is not a pet! It is actually an Animagus that I know very well, and inside of that Animagus sits Peter Pettigrew!"

Percy dropped the cage immediately and jumped back.

"What? That there is a murderer? And I've allowed him in my room for almost four years? Ack!"

"It was easy for him to fool you, you couldn't know, Percy. I'm actually most thankful that you brought him in and you might even earn yourself a good premium for helping to catch him, you know, because there is a price on his head! Let's give Amelia Bones a little Floo call."

Remus informed Lady Bones via the Floo:

"Amelia, I think I've just made a nice little catch! This here is the pest, err… pet that you're looking for!"

He held up the little cage. Amelia looked at it and asked, breathlessly:

"Remus! Are you sure?"

"Oh yes, I am sure! This here is Peter Pettigrew, alias Wormtail."

"You would know him, I suppose."

"Under thousands of rats, believe me. I'll bring him over, okay?"

"Yes, thank you. I'm looking forward to hearing your story of how you found him."

"Do you mind if I bring this fine young gentleman along? It was his pet for a while…"

"Bring him along then."

Remus left the twins with Arabella Figg and Harry and took Percy to the DMLE, where the two of them were already awaited by a few of the Aurors, Amelia, Arthur and Sirius.

"Hello everyone. I suppose you all know this young man here? Percy Weasley, Arthur's third son and owner of a pet rat."

"What's wrong with the rat?" Arthur asked, worried.

"He's not a rat," said Sirius.

He almost growled. Here was the traitor, the murderer – the man who had sold out his family and framed him for his crimes! He really had to hold himself back tightly.

"Ah! That then is the Animagus named Wormtail?" asked Gawain.

"Exactly!"

"Can he be forced back?" asked Amelia.

"Of course!"

Remus and Sirius took the stunned rat out of the cage, performed the spell to forcibly change Wormtail into Pettigrew and then cast another spell that would make it impossible for Pettigrew to transform back. Gawain then put the magic suppressing shackles on the new prisoner. He was appalled. This man was supposed to be dead! Killed by his friend, the murderer and traitor Sirius Black, according to their earlier records. He was so disgusted he could hardly look at Pettigrew.

They woke Pettigrew up. He looked around, shocked, and immediately started to go by his old line, accusing Sirius of all sorts of heinous crimes. Sirius stood there, amazingly calm, and let the man come to his own end. No one in the room said a word. Pettigrew's screams became less and less and finally, since no one seemed to respond to his claims, he simply fell silent.

"Well – it's clearly visible that you are not only a traitor and a murderer, you're also a coward, Pettigrew," Amelia declared. "Unfortunately a few drops of truth serum brought fourth the name of the real culprit – and it wasn't really a surprise that his name wasn't Sirius Black."

Just for one single sentence Pettigrew tried to switch to Remus, but that man calmly picked up Pettigrew's left arm and pulled back the sleeve.

"Still lying, you swine?" he asked calmly, pointing at the Dark Mark.

Pettigrew couldn't get out of that one. The Ministry people all looked at the tattoo and wondered. Sirius and Remus were both highly astonished and wanted to know:

"It's the Dark Mark! It's Voldemort's personal means of enslaving his Death Eaters. It means you have a true blue real Death Eater in front of you. Find a person carrying this thing and you know you have a Death Eater. Ask him how he got that mark! Have him spill the beans about all the others who carry it who are still out there! Put him away safely until you pressed the very last bit of information from him, because he's certainly a very valuable source. The former Death Eaters still out of prison will want to kill him, that's for sure, for one because he could talk and for another because he was the one that sent Voldemort to the place where he found his downfall."

"Okay…" Amelia said very slowly, wondering why she never knew about that mark.

She had the highest of respect for Remus. She knew that he knew a lot more than many in her own department and that he would be an invaluable asset if not for the stupid policy that no creatures were allowed to work for the Ministry. She gave a tentative look to Arthur. Arthur nodded, stood up and said:

"Well, this one is to be spirited away into a place where he can't get out, neither as a rat nor a human and questioned down to the last bit of information – just as Remus suggested. Not a word of his existence before we have what we need. We'll have him tried in front of the Wizengamot as soon as that's the case. What the former Death Eaters would do to him if they would be able to get hold of him isn't my concern once we've milked him for information. – And I shall go and compose a text that will lift that stupid restriction for creatures to work at the Ministry. Within a month or two the Ministry will be a possible workplace for every sentient magical being. You may then certainly use Remus as a consultant, seeing as he already has a good position."

Everyone grinned, except for Pettigrew who started to understand that his goose was well and truly cooked. And everyone went to work. Sirius was of course a part of the team to question Pettigrew, since that was one of the core projects Arthur had for him.

Arthur meanwhile, was busy with several other projects. The first was to organise bi-weekly assemblies of the department heads. He wanted to hear what was going on in the departments in a plenary surrounding. He sent invites to all the department heads, but received to answers that the person would not be available. The Minister stated a first example of his true abilities when he replied to that, telling the two persons his invites were to be followed swiftly and that their presence at these meetings were mandatory.

And back at home, little Harry simply waited, who would be home to play with him. He welcomed everyone. He certainly liked the Weasley twins a lot. The two joined him in his games to play outside, only watched by one of the house-elves. Percy loved to be in the library and read every book he could, while Remus worked on setting up a proper catalogue of the vast rooms that made up the library at Potter Manor. As per his mother's order Percy threw a glance at the twins now and then, but found them perfectly civil.

At the same time Remus also started to teach Harry to read and write. He was really pleased that the boy was curious and learned quickly and easily. Once he knew how to read Remus turned to basic maths and English, started on history and natural history, then gradually picked up other subjects. Every day he took three to four hours of time to teach.

Remus was amazed at the speed with which Harry learned. Of course, both his mother and father had been highly intelligent, but the way the Dursleys had treated the little boy wasn't encouraging and had kept Harry back. He also plucked the twins and got them to learn a lot more than Molly taught them at home. They soon learned the difference between an overbearing mother and a real teacher. Harry also profited because he learned at a quicker pace as the twins already had most of their basic schooling.

Remus and Sirius discussed Harry's schooling at length. Sirius would have preferred to send Harry to regular Muggle primary school, but the next one was too far away for the little boy to walk and they didn't want him on the open road anyway. Dumbledore was still looking for a way to get his hands on the boy. In the meantime the wards at Privet Drive had collapsed and he wouldn't be able to set them up anymore.

"The next best thing to a Muggle school would be to bring in some children of his age and have them schooled together. I don't want to keep Harry all alone if possible, Remy," Sirius said.

"No, I don't like that either. We can bring in the twins, but once they're off to school we would have to go around and look for playmates. I'll ask Minerva."

"Do that! I babysit happily."

Sirius simply wanted to spoil his godchild rotten. He certainly started off well with lots of attention and even more hugs. Sirius was the one who took Harry to bed on many evenings, reading him stories and he was the one who saw to it that the little boy ate his meals. Iris didn't have to compete, they all took turns and after a few days they had already found a good routine.

Remus called Minerva in her office and asked if she could give him information about children who would be in Harry's year. Normally she didn't comply to such requests, but in Harry's case she made an exception. The child desperately needed to have friends before he would come to Hogwarts, just so he wouldn't be exposed to all that hero worship that was bound to take place.

She gave Remus a small list of children she thought would be suitable. Apart from Amelia's niece Susan it contained the names of Neville Longbottom, the Patil twins, Daphne Greengrass and Terry Boot. At the end she wrote that there were several Muggle-borns in the book: Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hermione Granger and Sally-Anne Perks. She knew that Remus would be perfectly knowledgeable to find the addresses of these children.

He first visited the wizarding families, of course. They would know about Harry Potter, and they would feel honoured that their children were sought out to befriend the boy. And they were – right until Remus asked to explain to them why they were looking for pre-Hogwarts playmates and schoolmates for the little boy.

The first one Remus contacted was Madam Longbottom. There wasn't much of an explanation needed, she understood immediately.

"In a way that also goes for Neville, Mr. Lupin. And I'm simply not really the best person for him, I'm impatient and he's a little held back. We're very much afraid he might be a squib, you see…"

"Would you like to send him over for the day for school? I'm going to be the full-time teacher for Harry and I would like for him to have a few mates to share the lessons."

"You know, that might be good for him. He only sees other children in the frame of social functions and these are often so formal that they can't really learn to know each other."

"Then send him to school. I've not yet put the book-list together, but I'll let you know well in advance."

"Thank you, Mr. Lupin, if he should turn out to be a squib then he would at least have the basic training to go on in their school system. I think you might be able to help us there, couldn't you?"

"Yes, I could. And I would, Madam Longbottom. Even if he should be a squib then he still would have some friends here in the wizarding world, which is important, too."

Neville was also asked if he would like to go to school and he eagerly agreed, even if he was quite shy towards Remus. His grandmother was pleased about the solution. She knew that Remus was a werewolf and it meant nothing to her. She never even mentioned it while they discussed the when and how. Neville was invited to meet Harry.

When the two boys met they were, again, both very shy. Harry had thawed a lot though, the twins had seen to that. He welcomed Neville, and after a while the two found the odd affinities. Harry started to show more of his parents' sides in him. He was very compassionate and quickly noted that he needed to be the driving force to get to know Neville, even at his young age. Remus gave the boys a bit of time to get acquainted, before he brought in the next child, which would be the Patil twins. It was good that the twins were so different in temperament and character, despite being identical twins. Fred and George were delighted about the girls. They were totally different than Ginny and didn't bring that hero worship of Harry along.

Remus knew why. The twins' parents had been friends of the Potters. They were a little bit older than James and Lily, but they'd been quite good friends. Especially Parvati and Padma's mother Shanna was able to convey to them that Harry the boy was not Harry the Boy-Who-Lived. Her daughters hadn't been read the books in the first place.


End file.
